When Georgette woke up that morning she felt better rested than she had in a long time. It felt amazing. Her eyelids weren't heavy and she wasn't dragging her ass out of bed when she got up to look outside. It was sunny out and the sky was clear. She left Candice asleep and got dressed. She went outside the door. She made her way back down the stairs and went into the lobby. She was surprised to see that it was busy. A long table stood on the opposite wall. It was filled with food. She found plates on the end and made her way down. One side was filled with meat while the other had fruits and vegetables. She filled up a plate that could feed both her and Candice and then went back upstairs. She found Candice sitting up in bed rubbing her eyes.
"How was your sleep?"
"Amazing," said Candice, "These beds are so comfy." Georgette smiled and said
"I got some food."
The two girls sat on the couch and ate off the plate.
"So where are we headed next?" asked Candice, taking a bite out of an apple.
"We're gonna go east, which should take us to Nebraska," said Georgette, "But we need to find a map of Nebraska first." When they were finished with breakfast they headed back downstairs. Georgette spotted Tom, the guard who'd showed them around.
"Are you two leaving today?" he asked.
"We want too," said Georgette, "But we need some things first." They walked outside. There were tons of people. On the sidewalks, children playing, it was almost overwhelming for Georgette. She felt anxious. She'd never seen this many people at once. Candice however. was clearly enjoying it. She was beaming.
"This is amazing," said Candice, "I never knew there were this many people left." Tom turned to her and said
"What is it you need?"
"If it's not too much to ask, we need a map of Nebraska, or a map of the main roads in the U.S. and transportation." She knew they had been lucky to find a car the first time around. He nodded and said
"Come with me," Georgette snapped Candice out of her amazement and dragged her along. He led them to what looked like an old parking garage. But inside were wooden horse stalls that the people had obviously installed themselves with wooden boards and slabs. "We have around fifty horses here," he said, "It wouldn't hurt to let you have two of them, besides if we ever need more we can always go get more. As for the maps we only have one map of the full United States so we can't give you that but we do have a map of Nebraska you can have." Georgette was shocked at his generosity.
"Are you serious?"
"Ya," he said shrugging, "We're doing really well here, we can spare supplies. You know when the world first collapsed people were a lot less willing to share with others and help people out. People were desperate for supplies back then but now people are mostly in solid developed groups so there's much more to go around."
An hour later the horses were tacked up, they had their supplies tied down securely, and they had the map. They sat on the horses at the east gate of the city. One of the guards was there to send them off.
"Most of the way from here to Nebraska is all country, not much but a few farms here and there but once you get near the border of Nebraska there's a bigger town called Pine Bluffs. Be careful there, last person we had come from that direction said the place was overrun."
"Thanks," said Georgette, making sure they had everything. He gave the thumbs up for them to open the gate. It creaked open slowly and the girls moved there horses forward. Once they were out Georgette heard the gate closing behind them. They were on their way at last. Traveling through Wyoming to Cheyenne had felt like a small road trip, nothing serious. But now that they were past Cheyenne and almost out of Wyoming they were in uncharted territory, far from home, or what they had considered home. The ground was flat for miles. There were no more mountains in the distance. It was just wide open for miles, not a walker in sight. They kept the horses at a slow pace, not wanting to tire them out. They had a long journey ahead of them and they needed to conserve energy for when it was needed.
"That place was absolutely amazing," said Candice, clearly still in shock about all the people. "I didn't think places like that existed, do you think our parents are part of a group like that?"
"If they're alive," said Georgette. She wasn't to confident that either of their parents were alive, especially her mother.
Beth found herself staring at a concrete wall when she awoke. Her head was pounding, where the hell was she? Holding a hand to her forehead she slowly sat up and looked around. She was on a cot in a jail cell. She thought maybe she was back in the prison four years ago. Her daddy would walk through the door and say good morning. Where were Daryl and the girls? Then she remembered it all, the flames, falling and cutting open her head and leg. Was she dead? Surely she'd been eaten by walkers, or maybe she had become one and this is where her soul went after turning. Her head was heavily bandaged along with her leg. A woman appeared at the door, holding a tray of food. She smiled at her and said
"How are you feeling?" Beth didn't know what to say. She had no idea where she was and Daryl and the girls weren't with her.
"I-I don't know." The woman looked sympathetic and said
"Don't worry dear, we'll have you fixed up in no time."
"Where am I?" The woman looked down at her feet, an expression of discomfort crossed her face.
"You're camp was attacked by our people and you're in our prison. You were nearly dead when we found you, couldn't leave you out there." Beth felt enraged.
"You attacked our village and killed our people and now you expect me to want to be here!"
"There weren't many survivors," said the woman, still looking at her feet.
"So am I your fucking prisoner now!? You're healing me but you're gonna leave me to rot in this cell!" The woman was shocked at Beth's reaction.
"No, not at all, what little survivors we found were brought here to be a part of our group." None of it was making any sense to Beth. "We wanted your supplies, and you wouldn't give it up willingly so we took it from you." Beth got out of bed, ignoring the pain in her leg. She went at the woman, knocking the food from her hands.
"Where's my husband and kids?! Are they dead?!" The woman pressed herself against the wall.
"I don't know," she said fearfully, "Let me got get someone who would know." The woman slipped out the door, leaving Beth leaning against the bars, trying to piece things together. She had given the girls to Angela to take up to the hospital. Could they all still be there? A man appeared in front of her, standing in the hallway in front of the bars.
"Glad to see you're doing well, Mrs. uhh-"
"Dixon," she said, grabbing onto the bars. "Why am I here?"
"You were one of the survivors," he said, "No point in killing you, might as well have you here."
"Well I don't want to be here," she said, "I want to see my husband and daughters."
"Sorry," he said, "Everyone else was killed except for you and four others. We even found that old hospital y'all were using as a safe house, blew it up." Beth felt her legs give out from underneath her. She closed her eyes tights, but tears flowed out.
"What about my husband?"
"Dead probably," said the man, "The only other survivors were also women." Beth let out a sob. She couldn't believe what was happening. She was alone, all alone. A burst of rage sent her back on her feet, reaching through the bars, clawing at the man who stood just out of reach. She started screaming
"LET ME GO! I NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!"
"You ain't going anywhere," said the man, laughing, "And besides what does it matter if your whole family is dead, where are you gonna go?" Beth knew the man was right but she wasn't going to give in. Screaming she continued to reach for the man through the bars. He laughed again and walked away back down the hall. She continued to scream until she sat limp against the bars, her body completely exhausted. She was sweating and crying, feeling sick to her stomach. She remembered Daryl's face before he ran off, looking determined and brave. She would never see him again, hear his voice, feel him wrap his strong arms around her and whisper about how much he loved her in her ear. Her poor girls were gone with him, never to grow up, never to discover the world around them, she was alone. But with another wave of nausea she remembered she had another child, the one growing within her. She put her hand on her still flat stomach and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. There was her motivation. She slowly got up off the floor and sat back down on the bed. She had something to live for. She had lost so much in her life, her mother, father, sister, brother, husband and two of her children. Killing herself would mean to kill yet another child and she wasn't going to do that.
It was dawn when they reached Pine Bluffs. They stood in front of the large blue sign that read 'Welcome to Pine Bluffs, WY.' It was the last town in Wyoming and once they got through they'd be in Nebraska.
"I think we should go back to that farm we saw, we shouldn't cross through or try to go around it at night, especially since they told us it was overrun." Georgette agreed with her sister. The sun had almost set, casting a deep orange glow over the ground. The farm was only about five minutes back and they'd get there before nightfall. They turned their horses around and headed back down the road.
The red farmhouse came into sight along with the white ranch styled home that stood next to it. The farmhouse looked to be in rough shape. Its roof was gone and big green vines seemed to have swallowed half of it. They went up the driveway and got off their horses.
"I'll check the house," said Georgette, "You check the barn." Candice nodded and they both headed off in opposite directions. Georgette walked onto the front porch and knocked on the window. A few seconds later two walkers appeared at the window, clawing at the glass.
Candice cut through the thick vines with her knife, clearing a path to the front door. When she finally got there she grabbed onto the handles and pulled as hard as she could. It took a few good tugs to finally get it half open. She cautiously looked inside. There was nothing. Just a few old stalls and hay. She went inside and made sure there were no walkers hiding in any of the stalls. When she came back out she saw Georgette dragging the bodies of two walkers out onto the ground.
"The house may look ok on the outside," she said, "But the inside is pretty rotted and smells like absolute shit."
"Well where do you wanna sleep?"
"I was thinking in the barn with the horses," she said, "Is there a hayloft?"
"Ya but it looks unstable." Georgette shrugged and said "We'll just have to take shifts and stay on the lookout." Candice remembered the soft bed back in Cheyenne and wished they could sleep on that another night.
They fed the horses and let them drink from a pond out back before locking up the barn for the night. Candice lay on a pile of hay while her sister sat on the last step of the hayloft's ladder.
"I'll wake you up in three hours," said Georgette, getting herself comfortable. Exhaustion took over and no matter how many straws of hay were stabbing into her back, Candice couldn't keep her eyes open.
I've been doing nothing but writing all night lol thought I'd post this as well. So if anyone's confused, Daryl was told Beth was dead in order to torture him further. They also lied to Beth telling her that they blew up the hospital where as they actually took everyone they found there and questioned them and then killed them. Whatever people they could find alive later on were the ones they took in. So they're pretty bad people obviously.