Chapter 47 "Wartime"
Day 120; Group C
Merle sat in his office, biting his nails angrily. His prisoners had finally been released, but they were unruly. They would not obey his commands, and they threatened his position as leader. Even some of his own people had total respect for the prisoners. Somehow, Merle had failed to fool his people into believing that these intruders are foul, awful people. Which to him, they kind of were. But he knew better than that.
"Merle!" shouted a bony, brown man, bursting through the doors in a panic.
"What?!" Merle yelled back in surprise.
"There's a fire! It's headed this way!"
"A fire?" Merle questioned gruffly.
"Come look for yourself!" the Indian man yelled.
Led outside, the two men watched as the surrounding areas changed from green and white to orange and black. The smoke was thick, and the fire was approaching their train station base.
"Sutan," Merle commanded, "go get everyone, grab everything you can."
"Everyone?"
The older graying man stood and thought for a moment. "No. Leave the prisoners. I'll go make try to get the train ready."
"I thought it didn't work," Sutan said, already racing back inside.
"You got any other ideas?" Merle shouted, and was met with a short flash of worried eyes before the bony man disappeared inside the building.
Shakira sat in the cell they had been packed away in for weeks, crying once again. She could not help the overflow of tears; this cage they were rotting in made her feel like she was going insane.
The sad woman was horrified as she realized that they were now becoming used to the smell of their own human waste. It was especially obvious when one of the kind people of the train station group came to sneak them nourishment and had to plug their noses.
She thought of her family. Her brother, Gerard. Her mother and father. All of her friends. Abi-Maria, even though she had never been pleasant. Selenis. Oscar. Every single one of them was gone, and there was nothing she could do about it. This world was harsh, and it was cruel — it ripped away everyone she had ever loved, and it wasn't satisfied. Deep down, she knew that no one would survive this. There is no possible way, she thought. No one is meant for this — can do this. Not forever… I miss you. The shadow of you still haunts me. All the words we said, they keep floating around.
A loud commotion began outside of the cell, alerting her and awaking others who were dozing. It was unclear what was happening, but they were clearly in a panic.
A muffled "No!" could be heard from outside of the door before it abruptly flew open, Mandy and Amanda standing in the doorway. They both had bags around their shoulders, and Amanda held a large rifle.
"Let's go!" Amanda shouted, gesturing for them to follow her. Behind the two women, Sutan angrily sighed and kicked back into action, continuing to grab supplies.
Hesitantly, the prisoners began to stand, unsure of everything that was happening.
"Come on!" Amanda repeated, and they all stepped up, realizing the urgency in their captors' motions.
The eight of them raced from the dark chamber, relief and worry flooding them at the same time in a confusing mix of emotions. They were led into a large room that appeared to be their sleeping quarters. Many people dashed about, packing things in bags and preparing themselves panickedly.
"There," Amanda pointed to Axel, who was struggling to hold a bounty of bags. "There's your things. Get them, arm yourselves, and follow Axel. Do whatever he tells you, and you'll be okay. Mandy, Poppie, and I have your backs, okay?"
"What's going on?" Xavier questioned as his friends ran for their bags.
"Wildfire," she said, continuing her packing. "We have to move."
Once people got their things sorted, they left, racing outside to the train, which had roared to life and blown its horn as they scrambled.
Most people were gone, save for Mandy, Poppie, Shakira, Axel, Gabriel, and Sierra and Amanda, who were attempting to help them.
"Mom!" Poppie cried sadly.
"What, dear?" the aging brunette panted, cleaning out the last of their belongings.
"I lost Lilly!"
"Did you check the stockroom?" Mandy asked, distracted by the task at hand.
Poppie ran out of the room, searching for her doll.
Sierra and Amanda turned from looking outside the back window, and noticed that Poppie was gone. "Where did Poppie go?" Amanda asked, frantically running through the room, searching for the young girl.
Mandy raised her head and realized what she had just done. "Hell!" she screamed, slamming her suitcase closed. "I told her to go to the stockroom!" she yelled after Amanda, who was already running out of the room.
The middle-aged woman then began tightly packing her daughter's bag, doing her best to ensure that they could run when they came back.
"I think we're good now," Axel said to Gabriel and Shakira, who he had tasked with helping him get the last of their guns.
Axel led the way outside, carrying everything he could. Behind him was Gabriel, followed by Shakira, who was struggling greatly to keep hold of all that she could.
They escaped out the back door, Axel heading the way to the caboose of the roaring train. Walkers were coming out of the woods, some ablaze from the encroaching wildfire.
Impressively, Gabriel managed to keep his footing while toting all of the weapons and bags he could. Unfortunately, the story was not the same for Shakira, who continued to drop weapon after weapon, and did her best to pick them back up each time. Walkers and flames were getting closer, and she was beginning to panic. Things were rapidly falling apart, and everything was collapsing in on her. Her mind was betraying her, making her wild and frazzled, unable to focus on getting to safety.
"Shakira!" Gabriel yelled, realizing the young Latina had fallen behind greatly, and was clearly having a breakdown. "Shakira, just leave them! Run!"
The woman lost her train of thought. As the fire roared before her, she recalled her family. She remembered all of the deaths she had witnessed. Strangers and loved ones alike, perishing brutally before her.
As she struggled with the supplies in her hands, she was thrown off-task by a walker that had managed to catch up to her from the flames not far from her. It approached at a shamble and dug its foul jaws into the frail woman's shoulder. She wailed in agony and immediately realized what was happening.
She began stripping herself of all of the supplies she had been given, dropping them sloppily around her. She thought they could be grabbed by others who would follow her and could be salvaged. "I'm sorry," she called to Gabriel as more walkers stumbled out of the flames.
Gabriel watched as his friend, the poor soul, was offed by the cruelty of this world. She could have made it, he thought. We could have found somewhere safe, and she could have made it. She could have become stronger and smarter.
He bit his lip, turning his back on the scene that he thought to have been caused by sheer stupidity. Though she likely would not have defended herself well anyway, she should have stopped being so stuck in her head. If she had taken a moment to collect herself, she would have just left behind the supplies and kept running for her life. If anything, she would have noticed the walker and could have ran, or grabbed something to try to put it down.
She may not have been very strong or useful to the group, but she was a good person. Shakira was kind, smart, and helpful. Sure, she had recently been spending most of her time crying, but she was still a beautiful human being.
He entered the train, throwing his supplies down and preparing guns for what was likely to come as Axel remained in the open hatch of the train cart, praying for the others to make it out alive.
After moments of watching and hoping, he realized the flames had spread to the front of the building. The forefront of the train station was on fire, burning through the wood and to the foundations. The train roared once more, signalling that Merle had given up on them.
The large, bearded man had learned long ago not to question Merle. Usually, he was right when it came to things like this. But then, his heart racing back into action, he saw Sierra and Amanda run out of the doors. Quickly, he bolted off to make sure Merle waited just a bit longer.
The two women panted as they ran, firing rounds into walkers that had began to surround the area. Behind them, Mandy pushed out of the doors, holding her young daughter's hand. "But Lilly!" the girl yelled, angry to have lost her doll.
"We don't have time!" Mandy screamed.
Poppie leaned forward and bit her mother's hand, running back towards the building. As she entered, she realized the flames were overtaking the whole building. It burned powerfully, roaring madly as it devoured the walls, doors, and furniture in the building. The girl quickly regretted her decision and turned back, but was met instead by a walker that had got in between her and her mother, who was desperately trying to find a weapon of some sort to take down the undead human.
"Moooommm!" Poppie yelled, her voice tiny and frail.
"I'm coming, Poppie!" the mother yelled, giving up on finding a weapon. She dropped her luggage and sprinted at the walker, kicking it down. The biter fell forward, towards the young girl, and she screamed, falling on her backside. Her hair fell into the flames and caught fire. As Mandy attempted to recover from the kick, she used a singed plank of wood to ran through the walker's skull and put it down. Then, she panicked, running for her child, who was screaming as the flames spread up her locks and onto her face.
It was a disgusting, brutal sight as the girl fell victim to the blaze. Mandy grabbed her up, turned around, and ran with her suffering child, patting her down with her dress, attempting to save the girl.
Sadly, it was too late. The damage had been done, and by the time the flames on her precious daughter were extinguished, she was unsavable under these dire conditions. Now, she was suffering. Amanda had come back for them, and the four made it onto the train. Poppie was using the last of her strength to scream in agony.
"Mandy," Amanda said, looking sadly into her friend's eyes.
"No," she said, tears already running down her face.
"We have to," Amanda said as gently as she could. "There's no other choice. Not anymore."
Mandy gripped onto her daughter, who had passed out from the pain.
"She's out, Mandy. We have to do it now. If she survives, she'll just be in more pain and trauma when she wakes up. If not, she'll turn."
The mother looked down at her daughter sadly. She nodded, and lifted the girl's skirt to reveal that the walker that had fallen on her had also bitten her leg.
Before the flames overtook the whole area, Amanda put Poppie down. When they were all on board, the train took off, bolting away from the awful situation.
Not long after the train was in motion, Merle appeared from the front of the train. He had left Sutan in charge of making sure it stayed on a safe path.
He looked around the room and locked eyes with Sierra, Xavier, and his other ex-captives.
"Which one of you let the prisoners out?" he spat.
Most of Merle's people put their heads down, knowing who it was, and that they would likely be punished.
"It was me," Axel boldly stood up.
Merle took a step forward, his face twisted in rage.
"And me," Amanda said, standing from Mandy's side.
"And me," Mandy said frailly.
"Well, looks like you're all gettin' thrown from the train. Your little girl can stay with us, though," he taunted.
"My 'little girl' is dead," Mandy said coldly.
Merle's eyes flashed remorse, but he kept his sense of power.
"One less mouth to feed," he said.
Gabriel looked up angrily to the gruff man. "Say that again," he dared him.
"You talkin' to me, taco-bend-"
Gabriel rose from his seat, knocking Merle in the head with the rear end of a machine gun. Steve and Xavier came forward, tying up the man to a post in the corner of the cabin.
"Things are about to change," Sierra promised to Merle's weary people. "There's not going to be any more tyranny. No more racism. No more sexism. No more unfair treatment. From here on out, you are all equal. We're going to ride this train as far as we can, and find a place to hunker down and recover. And if you still want this asshole as your leader, then you can leave with him. Peacefully. I refuse to turn this disaster into war; we're already in wartime."