"Mika? Lizzie? What are you guys doing here?" Carol asked, astonished by seeing these two children that she had raised and loved four months ago.
"Carol!" Mika dashed straight into Carol's arms almost in tears with happiness and excitement.
"What are you doing here? Why are you out here by yourselves?" Carol asked, somewhat fearing the answer.
"The prison got attacked by a big group. They killed a lot of people. We're with Tyreese and Judith. We don't know if anyone else got out," Mika cried, reliving the horrible attack that took place three months ago.
"Shhh...It's gonna be fine. You said you two are with Tyreese? Where is he right now?"
It was like the past was coming back to slap Carol in the face. The man who loved the woman that Carol murdered was alive. He was with all of the children that Carol loved. Carol did not want to see Tyreese again. She didn't know if Tyreese knew it was Carol who murdered Karen, but the risk was too large. After all, she didn't leave her frinedship with Rick on good terms. However, she could not abandon Lizzie, Mika, and Judith again. If Tyreese knew and wished to hurt Carol, then so be it.
"He told us to go collect berries while he scouted up the train tracks."
"Okay. Oh," Carol started, suddenly remembering Andrew, "this is my friend, Andrew."
"Hey there," Andrew said.
Mika waved at Andrew shyly.
Carol looked up and saw Lizzie still standing by the bush just looking at Carol. She had a very distant and nervous look on her face, which was not like Lizzie at all. Carol knew that there was something wrong.
"And how are you, Lizzie?" Carol asked.
Lizzie stared for a moment and then responded, "Good."
Carol chose to just dismiss the issue for the time being. However, at that moment she heard the sound of crying. Carol knew that cry. It was the cry that belonged to Judtih, which meant that Tyreese is close.
"Guys!" Tyreese yelled.
"Over here!" Mika yelled back.
Carol braced herself. If Tyreese knew about what Carol did, he would surely kill her. She gripped her gun and exhaled deeply.
Tyreese pushed through the bush.
"There you ar-" Tyreese looked up and noticed Carol, "Carol?"
"Hey, Tyreese," Carol answered.
Tyreese walked over to Carol and hugged her. Carol was relieved that Tyreese didn't know about what happened with Karen.
"How have you been? We-we thought you were dead when you didn't come back with Rick."
"I...stayed out and kept scrounging for medicine. What ever happened with that? The disease?"
"Hershel started taking care of the sick. He saved a lot of people from dying. Ugh, he was such a good man. The prison got attacked three months ago by the governor, he had Hershel hostage and...he killed him."
"That's horrible. He'll be remembered though as a great man. Oh god, his daughters must have been in terrible condition."
"Yeah, they were. We don't know where they are now though. They could be with him in Heaven."
Carol remembered what the bandit said about a blonde girl when he was talking about Daryl. Could the blonde girl have been Beth? Carol decided to let Tyreese into her plan.
"Beth could be alive. And I think I know where she is," Carol stated.
"What do you mean? How do you know?" Tyreese asked.
"There were some bandits a ways back there. They were talking about having a blonde girl and Merle's brother at some place in Maine. Me and my friend, Andrew, were heading north to find them."
"Wow, I-I mean that's crazy. Beth and Daryl are both alive. We'll go with you."
"No, Tyreese, you don't have to."
"If there are survivors from the prison out there, then I want to find them! We were heading up north anyway. We thought that it might not be as bad there."
"Okay. We should start going right now then. The train tracks over here should lead us straight up north."
Carol went through the bush and walked up the steep hill that had the train tracks on top. The group followed behind her. Andrew ran up beside her.
"Carol?" he asked.
"I'm sorry. It's going to be dangerous. You don't have to come with us if you don't want to."
"No, I will. But, can we trust him?"
"Honestly, I don't know," Carol began whispering, "Remember how I told you I was kicked out of a group four months ago?"
"Yeah, of course."
"I murdered someone. His girlfriend. I told one someone while we were out scrounging for medicine and he gave me supplies and told me to leave."
"But...why?"
"We had a disease outbreak at our camp. It was highly lethal and we didn't know how to cure it. She had it along with another guy and it was a desperate situation. They had to die before they could spread it. Little did I know, it was too late and it already spread across the whole camp."
"Wow. I-I understand where you were coming from but...it's hard to imagine."
"It had to be done. And no one else was stepping up."
Andrew nodded and continued walking forward.
Carol looked back and saw Lizzie walking behind her. She still had that same distant look on her face.
"Lizzie?" Carol called out to her.
Lizzie walked faster and came up beside Carol, "Yes?"
"Are you okay?" Carol asked, worried about her.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Okay. You look like something's bothering you."
"My parents are dead."
Carol was shocked by how bluntly Lizzie was speaking.
"I thought you were over that already. That was a long time ago, Lizzie."
"It's hard to forget sitting next to your father as he is covered in blood, whispering out his final words. Telling you that he loves you. And you know that in minutes he's going to bacome one of those terrible things that rip you apart and kill everything that you love. The only way to stop that from happening is to blow his brains out and paint the bed with red."
This made Carol very frightened. She knew that something was horribly wrong with Lizzie. This kind of speaking was not like her at all.
"I...um...I thought you liked the walkers. You know you gave them names and thought about what their lives were like before they turned."
"That was before they tried to kill me. Now I know that they're just monsters and they all need to die. That was what you always tried to teach me, right?"
"Well...something along those lines..." Carol said, astonished by what she was hearing.
"I listen to all of your advice now. I know how to use a knife and how to find food. I know that you have to attack the brains of the walkers and I know how to skin and clean a rabbit for cooking."
Carol was impressed. Still slightly scared of what was happening to Lizzie, but very proud that Lizzie was learning how to survive.
"Okay. Well...take care of yourself, Lizzie. Let me know if you ever need to talk."
Carol thought about what was happening. She was getting reunited with her old group. She had hoped that this time things would go right and her second chance with this group would not be another failure.