A/N: Hey everyone! Please don't kill me for this ridiculously long wait.
I am so, so sorry for that. I don't even have a good excuse for it being so long. I made this chapter super long (over 6 thousand words!) in hoped that you all can forgive me. I'm trying to get to a regular schedule to get new chapters out, hopefully once every week. This hopefully includes updating my Agents of SHIELD fanfiction also.
So, let's not keep this delayed! Onto the new chapter!
The forest is quiet as we trek along the beaten path. Almost too quiet for my liking. With such a great number of us, I expected to hear thunderous footsteps, but they're all surprisingly soft.
My hands feel completely empty. Normally, I would have a gun or my knife in hand. Now, thanks to the Termites who took my weapons, I have nothing. It feels wrong. I should have protection of my own. I don't.
Maggie sets a hand on my shoulder, surprising me. I jump at the sudden contact.
"Sorry." She apologies, taking her hand back from me.
I mentally berate myself. "Don't be. I'm just a bit jumpy. It's quiet."
"Yeah, it is." Normally the woods calm me. The sweet air, the green grass, the way my hair blows in the wind. Now, all I smell is smoke. The grass beneath me is crunched down and left with red and my hair is a fucking mess.
"What's on your mind?" I ask.
"Just checking up on you." She says. The concern I see in her eyes is real, and the thought calms me. She cares, I think. But it also makes me nervous. Did she see?
"I saw you, in the woods." Maggie tells me. Her voice drops to a whisper and she moves to my ear. "You were shaking from head to toe. Eyes as wide as saucers. What happened?"
I close my eyes and take a deep breath. She saw my freakout, but not the cause. I can work with this.
"I just..." I start, but my voice chokes up. I shake my head again and clear my throat. "It was scary, y'know? I just thought we weren't all gonna make it."
Maggie's worry seems to fade at the lie. Her hand rests on my shoulder, and this time I don't jump from it. "Well, we did. We're all okay."
I nod and give her a soft, but real, smile. "That's what everyone keeps tellin' me." My eyes wander over to Carl, and I notice the group has stopped walking. He's holding Judith in his arms, starting to feed her a bottle as he sits on the trail.
"They keep sayin' it because it's true." She returns my smile with one of her own. As her eyes fall to Glenn she pulls away from me. "I need to go annoy him."
"All right." I chuckle. She then leaves me alone with my own thoughts.
I survey the group as a whole. Most I know, but we have new people that make our numbers, and group integrity, grow. Abraham, the brute force; Rosita, who can definitely hold her own in a fight; Eugene, the supposed holder to the walker-cure; Tara, strong-willed ambition clear to everyone. And Carol and Tyreese once more. Though I've seen Carol around, I haven't talked to her. I'm nervous to. With the fallout at the prison for her two human victims, I don't know what to say. She would think that I would agree with her actions. I don't.
I shrug the thoughts away. They would make me go crazy before we even made a campsite for the night. Instead, I look to Carl, who has almost fed Judith an entire bottle of formula. The feeling of butterflies erupt in my stomach. Happiness. I still can't believe she's back with us. Like a little miracle.
"How's she doing?" I ask him. I sit down beside him and Judith's eyes follow my sudden movement.
"Good." Carl responds, a giddiness to his voice. He sets the bottle down to his right and he begins to burp her. "She almost drank the whole bottle."
"Damn, she was hungry." I note.
"Well, she's getting bigger."
"Very true. But still." He succeeds in getting a burp out of her. He cradles her in his arms tightly once more; protectively. I understand the move. I want to do it, too.
Rick makes his way over to us, stating, "We're gonna set up camp for the night here." His eyes fall to Judith, and I notice a happy twinkle in them. It makes me smile. I haven't seen him this happy since who knows when?
"Yessir, sheriff Rick, sir." I give a lazy salute to him, which results in him sticking his tongue out at me. I give an eye roll in response. Dork.
Before I know it, it's dark out and we have a fire started. Since we have little to no food (only the couple cans that Tyreese and Carol had in their packs,) we don't bother to eat anything. Instead, we curl up by the fire and try to catch some shut-eye.
Carol and Daryl decide to take first watch together. I'm not surprised. Daryl wants to keep a close eye on his closest friend. And they deserved the time together. They were always very close at the prison.
As I lay in the grass, slightly dozing off, Carol sits beside me. I raise an eyebrow at her, yet don't say anything. Her hands grab her pack, and she rummages through it in what looks like no conscious thought. When she finds her desired item, she yanks it out with vigor and hands it to me. My knife.
"Where'd you-" I start, swinging to a sitting position, but she interrupts me.
"It was in one of their storage rooms, with Daryl's crossbow and Rick's watch." She explains. My hand grasps the hilt firmly, my fingers creating a perfect seal around it. The blade is still caked with blood, but I push that to the back of my mind. I have my knife back!
"Thank you." I say to her, grinning. I hold the knife close to me, happy to have my sacred object back.
She gives a smile back. "Don't mention it."
I slowly ease back to the ground, and she pushes herself off to move back to Daryl. My hands hold the knife close to my chest, making sure I keep the blade pointing out at an angle from me. As I get comfortable, my eyelids flutter shut and, for once, I actually get sleep.
By daybreak we're up on the road and walking through the trees. My arms are around Judith's wiggling form, my trusty knife back in its sheath. She makes cheery babble as I walk quickly to catch up to Carl, who has taken to holding the duffel bags. In the midst of my small haste, I walk right into Carol.
"Shit, sorry." I quickly muster, my eyes casting downward.
"It's fine Alyssa." She says, giving me a gentle smile. "We haven't had the chance to talk."
"No, we haven't." As I look to the rest of the group, I notice that we're all spread out from each other, all of us in little groups of two and three. Carol and I (plus Judith,) make a group of two.
"You know." It isn't a question, but a statement. "You know I killed Karen and David." I involuntarily shiver at how normal she makes it sound. I nod to her, though my eyes stay downcast to the drooling mess that is Judith.
"And?" She asks me.
"And, what?" I ask back.
"Liz," the way she says my nickname is like a plea, "please look at me."
With a deep breath, I look up to Carols face. It's nervous, but also strong. In the time she's been gone, she's created her own mask of strength. Well, I guess it isn't really a mask; it's her. She's grown in the short amount of time she was on her own. I'm not sure whether that's good or not.
"And, what?" I repeat, this time looking into her icy blues.
"And, do you think I did the right thing?"
The question I don't want. I drop my head down again, to her dismay. "Carol..."
"I need to know." She presses. "Even if it's not the answer I agree with."
I slowly shake my head and look up at her. "No. I don't."
Though her mouth turns into a frown, she nods. I continue, "You didn't need to kill them. They could've gotten better."
"I just wanted to stop-" She interjects. I stop her.
"I know. A calculated risk that didn't pay off. Others died. A lot more. But some of us got better." I accentuate each name, "Me, Glenn, Sasha. We're fine."
She stays silent as we trek through the tall trees. "... I didn't know you and Glenn were sick."
I nod solemnly. "We were. It was shit. But we're fine now. No need to kill. It's not always the answer."
She stays silent as I put my head down again. "No more killing."
"I can't promise that. Ever."
"I know."
A rustle in the trees grabs everyone's attention, shifting the mood from calm to defensive. Everyone with a gun points to the trees, and I hid quickly behind Carol. I wouldn't normally, but it's my job to keep Judith safe if a firefight breaks out.
Our guards drop again once Daryl walks out of the woods, squirrels in hand. A good hunt.
He puts his hands out in the air, saying, "We surrender."
I roll my eyes at the hunter, and we all begin our walk once more.
Rick makes a soft whistle, gaining most of our attention. "Hey, tighten it up." He says. "Stick close."
Some give nods of understanding, and we all huddle close together. I stick close to Sasha and Bob, and I listen to their little game of, "Happy or Annoying?"
"Uh, wet socks." Sasha says, a grin on her face.
"Cool feet." Bob says smoothly.
"Mosquito bites."
"Itching reminds you you're alive."
"Danger around any corner."
"Never a dull moment."
"The hot sun beating down on you."
"Oh, come on. A glorious tan." Sasha just laughs. She, obviously, is trying to be Annoying. Bob makes the situations Happy.
As Sasha laughs, Bob says, "I said it, and I meant it!"
She continues with the Annoying aspect. "No privacy."
"Captive audience." He smirks to her, and they kiss. I notice behind them Tyreese grinning widely. His sister probably hasn't been this happy in a while. I know I haven't seen her like this since I met her.
"One more." Bob asks. She gives him another peck. "One more." She does it again.
"HELP!"
"HELP! ANYBODY, HELP!"
Rick holds his hand up, stopping all of us from moving.
"Dad, come on!" Carl argues. The man screams loud, and I wince. Carl begs again. "Come on!"
Rick looks at war with himself. Please, I think. Don't kill this guy, Rick.
Carl says, "Come on!" one more time to Rick, and this time he gives a nod. We all burst to a full sprint, following the sounds of a scared man. As we run, we make it to a clearing, where a man is climbing a rock, a few walkers crowding beneath him. He wears clerical clothing, as if he is from a church or something.
"Help!" He screams over and over, trying to kick one of them. "Help!"
The adults make quick work of the walkers. It isn't that hard. If I wasn't holding Judith, I could have gotten them all with my knife.
"We're clear." Rick states. "Keep watch."
I look up to the lone survivor on the rock, shaking like a child. He has dark skin, terrified brown eyes, a small goatee, and he is whimpering from fear. Jesus, how did you even make it this far if you can't kill five walkers on your own? I can see that everyone else thinks the same.
"Come on down." Rick tells him. He shakily makes his way down the rock, sliding unsteadily down the side. He doesn't make any eye contact with anyone. "You okay?"
He holds up a finger, and immediately after, vomits to the ground. I groan in disgust and turn my head, my eyes meeting Carls as he wrinkles his nose in disgust. I shrug my shoulders and readjust Judith on my chest.
"Sorry." He weakly states, then makes an attempt to stand up tall. "Yes, thank you. I'm Gabriel."
Rick doesn't seem to care for the formalities. "Do you have any weapons on you?"
Gabriel gives a nervous chuckle and looks to anyone but Rick. His eyes land on mom, and she just raises an eyebrow to him.
"Do-do I look like I have any weapons?" He says, throwing out his arms.
"We don't give two short and curlies what it looks like." Abraham says, his tone gruff.
"I have no weapons of any kind." Gabriel announces. "The word of god is the only protection I need."
Man, are you serious?
"Sure didn't look like it." I say, incredulous. He looks to me in confusion. I slightly turn, my knife pointing out to him. His eyes widen in shock. I roll mine.
"I-I called for help. Help came." Gabriel points out, a nervous chuckle following his words. Jesus. No one buys that can of bullshit.
"Do you have," he clears his throat, "have any food? Whatever I had left, it just hit the ground."
Carl holds a hand out. "We got some pecans."
Gabriel graciously takes the nuts, giving a thanks in return. Carl nods at the thanks.
Judith babbles in my arms again, and Gabriel looks to her. "That's a beautiful child."
At the words, I notice some of the others take a few steps toward me, like a shield for her. My arms tighten around her. Not that I think he would do anything. He would probably trip on the way over and twist his neck the wrong way. But if he had friends watching us...
In the uncomfortable silence, he asks, "Do you have a camp?"
"No." Rick answers almost immediately. "Do you?"
"I have a church." He says. And that's the straw that broke the camels back.
"Hold your hands above your head." Rick orders, his voice firm and strong. Leader-like.
Gabriel does so, terrified. Rick pats him down, looking for a weapon anywhere. "How many walkers have you killed?"
"Ah, not any, actually." Gabriel answers.
"Turn around." Rick pulls at his shirt, twisting him backwards.
As he continues the frisk, he asks, "How many people have you killed?"
"None." The priest states, though he sounds more confused than anything. He turns his head to look back at Rick.
"Why?"
"Because The Lord abhors violence." Jesus, a Bible-thumper in the middle of an apocalypse.
"What have you done?" Rick asks, moving close to Gabriel to give him the Death Stare. Gabriel says nothing. Rick presses on. "We've all done something."
"I am a sinner." Gabriel says, disgusted with himself. "I sin almost every day. But those sins, I confess them to god, not strangers."
Mom, as done with this as everyone else, asks, "You said you had a church?"
He nods.
"Then take us there." Rick orders.
We follow the preacher through the woods, all eyes following him wherever he steps. My patience already wear thin at his, "The words of Jesus are my protection," train of thought. If we hadn't shown up when we did, the words of Jesus wouldn't have meant anything.
Rick turns to Gabriel as we walk. "Hey, earlier, were you watchin' us?"
"I keep to myself." He answers. "Nowadays, people are just as dangerous as the dead, don't you think?"
"Nah." Daryl says, his voice scratchy. "People are worse."
The priest gives a shrug. "Well, I wasn't watching you. I haven't been beyond the stream near my church more than a few times since it all started. That was the furthest I've gone before today."
"Or, maybe I'm lying." He continues, a smirk building on his face. "Maybe I'm lying about everything and there's no church ahead at all. Maybe I'm leading you into a trap so I can steal all your squirrels." He turns to Rick with his smirk, and notices the guarded looks on most of us. His grin turns to an embarrassed frown. "Members of my flock have often told me that my sense of humor leaves much to be desired."
As Rick takes a few steps towards him, he steps backwards. His face is flushed at his embarrassment.
"Yeah, it does." Daryl nods, shouldering his game from earlier today. Gabriel attempts to turn around, only to be hit in the face with a large branch full of leaves. His arms go to his face and attempts to push it out of the way, only half-succeeding. Jesus, man. How the hell did you make it this far?
We eventually arrive to, "St. Sarah's Church," a little, white, and mostly untouched church that is tucked away in the tall trees. Gabriel walks to the large oak doors, intending to go inside, but Rick stops him.
"Hold up." He says. Gabriel makes a face. "Can we take a look around first? We just want to hold on to our squirrels."
I make a snicker at the joke, but turn my face away from them before they look to me. Gabriel hands Rick the key to the doors, and most of the adults head inside. I stay behind with Carl, Tyreese, Bob, and Sasha while the rest of us scope out the place.
As I stand beside Carl, I bump my hip against his. He turns to me, raising an eyebrow. "What?"
"Nothing." I say, and bump him again. "Just trying to be annoying. It's in my nature."
"I noticed."
"Hey!" I stick my tongue out at him, but laugh nonetheless. "Rude."
"Yeah? And?" He challenges lightly.
"And, because you're rude, I think I'm gonna keep holding this beauty." I point to Judith in my arms as I lightly bounce her around. "I WAS going to trade you for those lovely duffel bags, buuut rudeness does not get rewarded." I stick my tongue out at him.
"And if I say sorry?"
I raise an eyebrow. "I might reconsider."
He huffs in a playful annoyance, like a child. "I'm sorry, angel. Now can I please hold my baby sister?"
I cock my head to the side, pretending to think about it. "Fine. But only because you said it so nicely."
He drops the bags to the ground in a heap, and I gently pass over Judith in his arms. As I grab the duffels, the adults walk back to us through the church entrance.
As they all file out, Rick in front, Gabriel says, "I spent months here without stepping out the front door. If you found someone inside, well, it would have been surprising."
"Thanks for this," Carl gives him a smile as he looks to the building.
Abraham goes to Rick, all work and no play. "We found a short bus out back. It don't run, but I bet we could fix that in less than a day or two. Father here says he doesn't want it. Looks like we found ourselves some transport." Rick says nothing back to him. "You understand what's at stake here, right?"
"Yes I do." He answers.
"Now that we can take a breath-" mom starts, but gets interrupted by Abraham.
"We take a breath, we slow down, shit inevitably goes down."
"We need supplies, no matter what we do next." I smirk at her words.
"That's right." Rick agrees with her. "Water, food, ammunition." With that, he holds his gun and hops up the stairs into the church.
"Short bus ain't goin' nowhere." Daryl adds before he follows Rick inside.
We all follow suit into the church, but before I'm even halfway through the door, I hear Glenn say, "One way or another, we do what Rick does. We're not splitting up again." And again, I smirk at my teams words.
I gasp at how clean the inside of the church is. Not a speck of dust on the pews or ground, each Bible tucked neatly into the sleeves, even the children's drawings that were tacked to a board were orderly. Not a hair out of place. My suspicion rises about 15%. No place should be this clean anymore.
As we set our bags down and rest a bit, Rick turns to Father Gabriel once more. "How'd you survive here for this long? Where'd your supplies come from?"
The priest is quiet for a moment. "Luck. Our annual canned food drive. Things fell apart right after we finished it. It was just me here. The food lasted a long time, and then I started scavenging. I've cleaned out every place nearby. Except for one."
"What kept you from it?" Rick asks, his stare going from a level one BitchFace to a level three.
"It's overrun."
"How many?"
"A dozen or so. Maybe more." Oh, please.
"We can handle a dozen." Rick tells him. Easily, I add mentally.
"Bob and I will go with you." Sasha offers. "Tyreese should stay here, help keep Judith safe."
"That'll be okay?" He asks Tyreese.
The tall twin gives a smile. "Sure. If you ever need me to watch her, need anything for her, I'm right here."
"I'm grateful for it." Rick gives a nod of appreciation to him. "And everything else."
"I'll go too." I offer. Rick looks to me but shakes his head.
"Alyssa, you should stay here with the others. We need eyes and ears here too."
I furrow my brows in confusion. Did you just fucking bench me? "Rick, I can help-"
"I know, and I don't doubt it. But I need your help here."
I bite my tongue to refrain from saying something stupid to him. You just benched me! Ugh.
My eyes go to the ground instead of glaring at him. I move to an empty pew space and I flop down on it, hard. I would've thought that he'd like my help, not go against it.
In the tense air, Gabriel breaks the silence. "I'll draw you a map."
"You don't need to." Rick says. "You're coming with us."
The nervousness settles back into Father Gabriel. "I-I'm not gonna be of any help. You saw me. I'm no good around those things."
"You're comin' with us." Rick states firmly, his mind settled. Gabriel just gives a shaky nod in return.
As I continue my self pity-party, most of us get to work unpacking supplies and taking inventory. We're running low on just about everything.
"Hey, scooch over." I haven't looked up yet, but I can easily tell who the owner of the voice is.
I don't say anything back to her, but I do move myself over and allow her some room to sit. "Do you wanna do the awkward, 'you wanna talk about it?' speech, or do you wanna skip that part?"
"I'd rather not talk about it, period." I say in a huff.
"C'mon, Liz. You know we're not gonna do that." Mom says gently.
"Fine. Skip it."
"Then I'm gonna say, you're acting pretty stupid."
I roll my eyes. "Thanks, mom. Just the words I want to hear."
"Can you hear me out first?"
"What's there to hear about?" I finally look at her, but she isn't angry at me. Instead, her warm brown eyes are comforting and soft, and there's a light smile on her lips. "Rick won't let me go on a run. Simple as that."
"And do you know why?" She asks patiently.
I shrug my shoulders. "I don't know. Because I'm only a kid or somethin'?"
"No, nothing like that. He knows you can take care of yourself, just like anyone else in this group." She tells me firmly. "He sees you as an equal, I can easily say. You're just like Glenn or Daryl or even me. You're valued, trust me."
I give a small nod to the words. "But then... Why won't he let me go?"
Her hand glides over my own, holding it gently. "Because he's scared for you."
"What?" I frown, confused.
"It was only two days ago that you got those bruises on your sides." She says, her voice going quiet. "And that we were all stuck in a shit situation."
"... Oh..."
"Yeah." Her hand squeezes mine tightly. "Do you know how hard it was for me to stay in place? The last thing I wanted to do was sit there while that... Pervert was hovering over you. Rick went through the same thing, you know. Wanting to do something for you but he couldn't. So, it's only natural that he wouldn't want you out just yet. If I'm being honest, I don't either."
"Mom..."
"Before you say you can take care of yourself, I know you can. Call it an irrational fear or whatever, but it's how I feel."
"No, I get it." I wrap my arms around her tightly and hug her ferociously. "I'm sorry I was being stupid."
"It's okay." I can hear the smirk in her voice. "Just know that I'm not letting you out of my sight for at least a month."
I laugh. "Okay, mom. Whatever you say."
She rests her hands on my arms and pulls away, looking at me with a large smile.
I raise an eyebrow. "What?"
"I just... I'm lucky I found you." She says earnestly.
"I'm lucky you found me, too." I grin back at her.
"Hey everyone. We're heading out now." Rick announces to all of us. "We'll be back before dusk."
"I'm gonna go with him." Mom tells me. I nod in agreement.
"Hey, wait up." She calls to him as he walks to the door. She and I both get up and head to him and his little group. "I'm coming too."
He nods to her, his signal of approval.
"Hey." I get his attention, and I wrap my arms around him. His go around me in response. "Don't die out there, okay?"
As I pull away, Rick says, "I haven't died yet."
"You better keep that streak." I say with a small grin. He just nods back. And the mini group sets off to go get more food.
We all get up and continue to unpack our little amounts of supplies. Carol and Daryl, after noticing how low we are on water, offer to go scavenging a little bit, maybe fill up some jugs of water if they're lucky. They leave, taking four empty jugs with them.
Maggie, Glenn, and Tara say they're ready to go out for a little bit, saying that Tara found a gun shop in a phone book. She also tells me that it is unlikely that they'd find anything there, but it was worth a shot. So the three of them set off for a journey of their own. Abraham went outside earlier, messing around with the short bus. Trying to get it to work. Tyreese is inside, holding Judith. He's lightly rocking her around, humming to her, trying to get her to sleep. Carl gave her up a little while to go so he could go outside and look around. And, here I am, bored out of my damn mind. I had a thought of asking to go with Glenn, Maggie, and Tara, but then I got a twitch of guilt from what mom said earlier.
I let my feet bring me outside the church, looking for Carl instead. She said she didn't want me on a run, but she never said I couldn't go outside.
I find him staring intently at a window of the church, running his hand along the edge of it.
"You look like shit, Sherlock." I say as I make my way towards him. I take note that he isn't wearing the sheriffs hat atop his head.
"Yeah, well, no sleep and a beating does that to you." He answers, dropping his hand from the window. I hum in response.
"Whatcha lookin' at?" I ask, my eyes moving toward the window.
"Scratches." He points to the bottom right edge of the frame, and he's right; there are deep, angry marks.
"So? Walkers can scratch." I shrug my shoulders.
"Not like this." He shakes his head. "These ones are deep. Like knives or something. There was a lot more force than just nails."
I move closer to it and look harder this time. It's true. Walkers wouldn't scrape so deep into the wood. They couldn't splinter like this. And these marks are all around the frame, not just the corner.
"Shit." I breathe out. What does this mean?
"Yeah. He's hiding something after all." Carl bows his head. He really did want to trust Father Gabriel.
"We're all hiding something, Carl. Doesn't mean he's a bad person." I try to lift his spirits up. "For all we know, it could have been those Claimer guys trying to break in."
He nods, but doesn't say anything to me.
"C'mon, cowboy." I say, and move closer to him. "There's more than just bad people in this world."
"I know." He says to me, looking up at my face. "I was just hoping we would find someone good."
"We will." I sound so sure of it, even though my thoughts about it aren't as strong. "We found Tara, right? She's good. And Abraham, Rosita, Eugene."
"Yeah, but we found Terminus, too."
"And guess what? Without that shitstorm, we wouldn't have found Maggie and Glenn, or Sasha and Bob. Hell, we wouldn't have even found Carol or Tyreese or Judith. With bad comes good, hand in hand."
He mulls over in his thoughts, thinking. I place a gentle hand on his cheek, my thumb lightly ghosting over his black and blue eye. He winces at the motion.
"Sorry." I apologize at the pain. I bring his head down to my level and press a long kiss on the bruise. "See? Bad and good."
He gives a smirk at my actions. "Fine." He brings a hand to rest on my shoulder, and it's my turn to wince.
"What?" He asks.
"I'm pretty sure I have a cut there." I answer. "From a few days ago."
His hand gently and slowly pushes the cloth of my shirt away from my shoulder, exposing my skin and bra strap. My breath picks up as he runs his thumb along the length of the cut, which goes from my shoulder to the middle of my collarbone, underneath the shirt. His eyes look to mine before he brings his head down, planting a kiss on the red line. I gasp as he kisses my skin again, this time closer to the line of my shirt. Jesus, I think. My brain goes foggy as he presses another kiss to my skin, moving the shirt a little to reach more of the cut. I move my head back, allowing him more room.
The kisses are cut short as we hear rattling down the street. He pulls his head away from my shoulder, and I quickly push my shirt back into place. I try to get my breathing under control as I notice Rick and the others pushing large carts of food into the clearing.
"I'm gonna go..." I point over to them and he nods in agreement.
"Yeah, okay." He pants out. "I'm gonna- church."
I laugh a little as he scurries away, and I make a light jog to get to the others.
"Looks like you guys were lucky." I pant out. Now I can blame my breathing problems on the run, along with the blush that adorns my cheeks.
So. Much. Food.
We feast like kings now. These three whole carts of food could last us a good, long while. A month, at least.
I'm sitting next to Glenn in a pew, my legs bent comfortingly and me gently resting against his side, each of us holding a hearty plate and eating to our hearts content. My ears are filled with relaxing sounds of conversation around me, all of which are happy. Glenn tells me of how his run to the gun shop was actually worth it. They managed to find some silencers and a few rounds for a .22 Magnum. I say what a great find that is, especially since gun stores are normally wiped clean nowadays.
"I'd like to propose a toast." Abraham announces to all of us. I look over to the red head, standing near the food table and holding a beer in his hand. "I look around this room," he starts, "and I see survivors. Each and every one of you has earned that title." He raises his can up and shouts, "To the survivors!"
"Survivors!" We all shout back. We all raise our glasses and cans up, clinking those nearest to us. I clink my glass against Glenn's before taking a long swig of my water.
"Is that all you want to be?" He asks. Ugh, I should have known he wouldn't stop there. I swear, this man lives and breathes Washington DC.
Abraham, what's your favorite vacation spot? Washington DC. Abraham, what's your favorite color? Washington DC. Abraham, which pair of underwear is your favorite? WASHINGTON DC.
"Wake up in the mornin', fight the undead pricks, forage for food, go to sleep at night with two eyes open, rinse and repeat?" He asks all of us. "'Cause you can do that. I mean, you got the strength. You got the skill. The thing is, for you people, for what you can do, that's just surrender. Now, we can get Eugene to Washington and he will make the dead die and the living will have this world again. And that is not a bad takeaway for a little road trip. Eugene, what's in DC?"
The mullet-haired scientist stands up shakily from his spot on the ground. "Infrastructure constructed to withstand pandemics even of this fun at magnitude. That means food, fuel, refuge. Restart."
Abraham nods to the words. "However this plays out, however long it takes for the reset button to kick in, you can be safe there. Safer than you've been since this whole thing started. Come with us. Save the world for that little one." Eyes go to Judith, who's resting on Ricks chest. "Save it for yourselves. Save it for the people out there... Who don't got nothin' left to do except survive."
I look to Bob and Sasha, both of whom are nodding to the proposition. Daryl looks to the ground, but I have no idea what goes on in his head. The same thing goes with Carol and Tara. Tyreese, sitting next to Rick, smiles at the proposition. Judith babbles to Rick in the silence.
"What was that?" Rick asks his daughter. She coos again to him. He turns over to Tyresse, smiling. "I think she knows what I'm about to say."
"She's in." He laughs to her. "If she's in, I'm in. We're in!" I laugh at his dadliness. Cheers of agreement follow his answer, along with claps.
"You know, I've never seen the Lincoln Memorial." I tell Glenn. "Maybe I'll finally get to visit."
He grins at my statement. "It's awesome there. I've been a couple times; once on a family trip and another for school."
I lightly shove his shoulder with mine. "Evil!"
"I also got to tour the Smithsonian."
"Now you're just rubbing it in my face."
"And the Vietnam Memorial Wall."
"Seriously, Glenn, I'm gonna punch you."
I hold my fist up and shake it dramatically. He laughs at my antics.
"Come on. I'm sure you've been places before, right?" He asks.
"Nah." I shake my head. "Didn't have the money. Or the time. But, I did get free fries from my moms diner. And cake. But they didn't know about the cake."
He laughs again. I nod, closing my eyes. "And it was damn good cake."
As I open them, I notice Bob exiting through the front door of the church. I raise an eyebrow but don't move from my spot.
"What kind?"
"Well, normally it was just chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. All homemade. And vanilla with buttercream. They did death by chocolate all the time. And strawberry shortcake too."
"Yeah? What was your favorite?"
I gasp in disgust. "Asking me my favorite cake is like asking a mom who their favorite child is! I'm shocked and appalled, Glenn Rhee."
"Okay, okay." He puts his plate down and holds his hands up in surrender. "Jesus, I didn't realize they were that good."
"Oh, they were." I keep my eyes on the door of the church, but I didn't notice Bob coming back yet.
As I steal a cashew from Glenn's plate, I stand up. "I'm gonna go check up on Bob. I'll be back."
"Okay." He nods to me. "When you come back you need to tell me exactly how good these cakes were."
"In explicit detail." I agree. "They had pies too."
"Mmm, pies."
I laugh and head out the front door, making sure to make as minimal noise as possible.
As I look around, I don't see him anywhere. "Bob?" I call out, trying to be quiet.
I take a few steps further out, my eyes searching through the dark for his tall figure. "Bob? Where'd you go?"
I head over to a large tree to the left of the church door, looking around it. I find a large gash pulled through it, high up. I can't even reach it. What the hell?
And, suddenly, the back of my head explodes in pain. The feeling is so sudden and so harsh that I don't even realize what's happened until my mind goes blank and I don't see anything at all.
A/N: Hope you guys liked this! I'm pretty proud of it, even though it took forever to write. I hope they Carl/Alyssa kisses made up for that ;) Plus, I love writing Big Brother Glenn scenes. Also, I'm going to be writing a Fear the Walking Dead fanfiction too, if some of you are up for that. It's a Nick/OC. Just thought you would like to know.