Chapter 24: Reminders

Sunny pulled her coat closer to her. This was the first run she had gone on since she and the twins came to EastHaven. And it just so happened to be the dead of winter. The bright side to it all, no walkers could bother them. All they had to worry about was covering the track on their way back home.

The building they walked through was strange. It wasn't easy to tell what it had been, but it had some sort of concessions that was full of food and different supplies around. Sunny walked around only to stumble into the supply room that had multiple things. From tools to toys, it was there. She called Nate into the room when she spotted it. Most of the stuffed animals were blackened with age, or torn. But there was one, right in the middle with its beady eyes and blueish grey coloring. Sunny gently pulled the stuffed blue heeler out of the pile of battle worn toys. She looked down at it and it blankly stared back at her. What she saw was the little pup she pulled out of a hole punched box for her twelfth birthday. The one she had to feed herself. That had stayed next to her and followed her, even when she was going the wrong way. He saved her life just as much as she had his. And she abandoned him, just like she abandoned everyone in Alexandria. It had just been her and River for the longest of times, before she couldn't get back to him. Before her brother taken them to Alexandria. Angel would love this toy. Both of them.

Sunny just didn't have the heart to put the stuffed animal down and walk away. She told herself she would bring it back for her daughter. But honestly, she just couldn't stop holding it. So she continued to hold it and relive the past as their stares wouldn't falter.

Carl looked into the beady eyes of the toy blue heeler thinking of a girl and her dog from long ago. He let several memories of the duo take his mind for a little while. Soon he brought himself to put it down, before looking at a picture on the nightstand. It had the little girl, Angel in it along with who he assumed to be her brother Carl. That was when Carl Grimes figured out the two were twins. He watched his mother give birth to his sister Judith with a C-Section, but he couldn't imagine how hard it would have been the natural way with two. His thoughts traveled to Enid. She and Gabriel were to watch Judith. Enid, she was about seven months along and her husband was who knows where. Carl couldn't help but smile to himself how close those two got after Sunny didn't come back. It almost felt like just three days ago Preston found a ring for her. And it was like yesterday when they announced they were expecting. He was happy for them, he really was; but it all reminded him too painfully much of Sunny. Of how just as easily, he could have kids of his own.

Carl sighed. They had been cooped up in this house for too long. He walked out of the bedroom and into the living room. With nothing better to do, he started to pick up the frame that lay facedown on the gun cabinet. What caused him to stop was the sound of voices. Instantly everyone in the house was on edge. Not because the voices continued, but since they stopped just as abruptly as they started.

Then, there was laughing. "Let's knock some down boys!"

With just a small peek out a window, Rick and Bow found Saviors pouring gas on houses, and holding something that looked like it could explode. There might have even been a propane tank or two.

Bow started backing up. "Use the back way. The back way now!"

The older man shooed Glenn and Sasha toward the back of the house, leaving the father and son to follow. Carl was hardly out of the living room when an explosion threw him forward. Bricks flew everywhere as Rick helped his son to his feet and they continued to follow the rest.

Tank sat down at the landing of the stairs. Sunny set down a newly lit candle so she could see her companion better. He set down one of his own so the stairwell had light. He ran two fingers along his stubbly jawline looking at Chance's sleeping form. Tank let out a small sigh before looking up the steps to where sunny sat next to the railing.

"Kids changed so much. I didn't recognize him at first but thought I knew him somehow." The square man paused.

"This place. It started out so small. Everybody knew everybody. Ian was here from the start. I mean, he was a kid but, he had somewhere. He had a home, a family. But he still went outside the walls. He and Bow. They found people. Help this place grow. Let in the right people... Let in the wrong people."

Sunny couldn't help but think of the countless communities she had gone through. Along with the ones she had seen fall. But if only she knew, he was also talking about himself.

"This place has seen its battles. And it's still stands because of people like them. It's also hard to think that I had been on my own until Bow and Ian found me. I had been with a group, but I left. They gave me that new chance, like that kid over there has gotten." Tank looked up at Sunny.

"I remember that day. I remember the day Ian came back with Bow, sharing how they nearly escaped. And Bow told about the girl named Hope who saved them. Ian's mom didn't let him go on any more runs after that." He chuckled, shaking his head. Then it abruptly faded. "Then this group came, tried to take over but left when they got board. Ian lost everything. The bastards burnt his house to the ground. Along with everything but him. His parents, belongings, even the dog. He changed so much after that. Ya know, the kid had helped me once upon a time. I couldn't just not help him. Took him a while, but he came back. He became himself again yet changed a little."

Tank looked down at the candle by his right knee, before slowly looking up at Sunny.

"Then you came. You and the kids. From the second they brought you through those gates, Ian was himself again. Something I hadn't seen in him in years rekindled and he was hellbent on sparking that fire he saw in you. The same you had done for him. He told me about you when you were first up and walking. Damn it. And he knew. Ian knew this whole time and I'm just finding out. You're Hope."

"Ian was a good man. Good friend too." Sunny smiled a little in the glow of the candle light thinking of their fallen friend.

"Yeah, he was." Tank agreed. "He loved you, you know?"

"Yeah. He did didn't he?"

"No. Hope, not like that. More than that. Much more."

Sunny sighed, leaning her head on the railing. "I know."

"I know."

Nate looked out from the edge of the treeline. Smoke and flames rose up in the dusk sky. Hatred and a bad feeling mixed with sadness filled him. That was Bow's neighborhood. All he hoped was that the clever old man could escape this fix like all the ones he had before.

A duffle bag rested by his feet and a backpack strapped over his shoulders: Nate was delivering the supplies he had promised to the Underground. Grabbing the duffle with a sigh, Nate turned to the woods with one last glance toward the town. Then he turned his back to the suburban city. On the terrorists trying to claim it as theirs. Turned his back on the flames and chaos unleashing behind him, and walked into the trees. Into the darkness of a starless night.

Sunny shook the boy awake. When he opened his eyes she pulled the black handkerchief to the bridge of her nose. Her face had been cleaned, but the memory of how this building war started would be forever burned into her memory. Chance sat up finding Sunny crouched next to him and Tank by the door.

"Time to go kid." She spoke.

A/N

Sorry it took so long, but here it is. The update.

- so sorry guys about the little mix up. I accidentally published chapter 25 instead of this which is 24. But there is the actual chapter-

So in what way was Tank talking about himself?

Where is the group with Bow going to end up?

How is Tank, Sunny, and Chance's trip to the farm?

Thanks so much for reading, please remember to vote and comment, and find out in the next chapter!