Red River Blue

Chapter 39

"I can take 'er for a while," Wren offered, holding her hands out so that Tyreese could hand Carl's baby sister off to her without having to strain his injured arm too much. "She's not that heavy," Wren assured the man.

Tyreese looked winded. But that wasn't the only reason Wren had offered to carry Judith for him. Tyreese was a very nice man. But he had cut his arm badly during the fight. Even though Wren had wrapped it as tightly as she could without cutting off the circulation to his hand, he was still bleeding. Blood was weeping through her hastily applied bandages. Wren didn't know as much about the dead as her older sister did, but there was one thing she knew for sure. The dead were attracted to the smell of blood. Wren didn't want any of it to get on baby Judith.

Judith was heavier than she looked. Holding her took both of Wren's arms, leaving no hand free to fight if a walker stumbled upon them. Wren stopped, gesturing for Mika to hand her the back pack she was wearing on her back. Instead of taking it off, Mika turned around and moved close enough that Wren could unzip the bag and poke through it until she found what she was looking for. Judith was partial to one particular baby blanket. It was actually a large multicolored scarf with an attractive geometric style print on it. Michonne had brought it back from one of her many exploration trips and given it to the little girl.

Wren pulled the blankie from the bag, thankful that the fabric had a little stretch to it and that she had packed the item despite the fact that Lizzie was rushing her and telling her she was packing too much. She zipped the bag back up, then changed her hold on Judith. Wren balanced the girl in an awkward postion, against her chest facing towards her with her little legs dangling down on either side of Wren's slim waist. Then she laid the scarf blanket against the little girl's body. It only took Mika a moment to figure out what Wren was trying to do. She moved behind the other girl and grabbed the scarf, looping it around Wren's neck and crossing it behind her back. The loose ends were tied in a knot under Judith's diaper bottom to support her weight.

"Good thinking," Tyreese told the girls. He didn't want to admit it, but he was secretly grateful that Wren was a member of his little group. She wasn't as fierce as her older sister, but the younger of the two Dixon girls was still smart and resourceful. Tyreese had seen Wren around the prison enough to know that she was always eager to help others and could cook better than most grown women he knew. She didn't hunt, but she went out foraging with Rick's son a lot and they always seemed to be able to find something edible to bring back. Since Tyreese wasn't exactly what most people would consider to be outdoorsy, he was glad to have someone along that knew the difference between poison oak and wild garlic. She had already saved him once the night before when she had stopped him from lying down on a patch of stinging nettle. His elbow was still burning from where one of the tall leafy plants had touched him and he hated to think what it would have felt like to get a facefull of the stuff.

Tyreese smiled down at baby Judith and gave the little girl an affectionate pat on her head. "You start getting too tired, you tell me and I will take her," Tyreese said, lifting his hand from Judith's head and moving it to Wren's long locks, "and keep your eyes open for anything we can pick to eat later." Wren nodded and glanced back the way they had come, shuffling her feet like she was thinking about heading back that way.. "See something back there?," Tyreese asked.

"I think I saw a grapevine," Wren admitted. She had thought about stopping at the time, but was nervous to speak up and tell a grown man what she thought they ought to be doing.

"You lead the way," Tyreese said, stepping clear of her path and giving her a playful little bow.

Just as Wren was popping the first ripe grape into her mouth, Judith grunted. The grunt was followed by a horrible noise and an even worse smell. Wren wrinkled up her nose and stared down at the little girl that was strapped to her chest, hoping beyond her wildest hope that the front of her still mostly white t-shirt wasn't covered in squishy yellow baby poop. They had packed a bag for Judith, but nothing for themselves. So the clothes on her back were the only ones she owned. If her shit got covered in poop she would be forced to choose between wearing it or walking around in nothing but her bra, neither being very appealing options. Wren was relieved when Tyreese stepped forward and offered to take care of the baby and her mess. Lizzie helped out with the little girl for the first time, handing Tyreese the things he needed from Judith's baby bag while Wren and Mika stuffed their faces with grapes and spit the grape seeds out on the ground around them.

"Keep an eye out while I'm down here," Tyreese reminded the girls. He didn't have to say what they needed to keep an eye out for. Along with the constant threat of walkers they had seen some unsavory looking men after they ran from the prison. Unlike many of the other prison residents, her family had an escape plan in place. Wren knew if anything ever happened and she got separated from her parents and Harley, she was to wait for them at her mother's camper. The camper was parked about a mile out from the prison, hidden in the woods by a nearby road.

Wren was afraid she might not be able to find the camper. But Harley had marked the way by carving into the trees and marking them with pink nail polish. Wren not only found the camper, she also found out what happened to her two missing bottles of pink glitter polish. The problem was that someone else had found the camper before they did. A lot of someones.

Tyreese said the men must have been part of the governor's army but Wren wasn't so sure she believed that. They were dirty and looked like they had been in a fight. That much was true. Two of them were tearing Wren's mother's camper apart while the rest of them nursed their wounds. One man had his shoulder bandaged and his arm in a ripped up shirt that was serving as a sling. Another had a freshly broken nose. That was what struck her as odd. They looked like they had been in a fist fight, not in a battle where people were shooting at each other with guns. Either way there were too many of them to take on, especially when they only had two guns, one adult and baby with them.

So along with the walkers, the girls kept an eye out for a group of rough looking men. Wren wasn't sure what she was supposed to do if she spotted the men. Running might be their best option. She popped another grape into her mouth and tried not to think about her family and how they were heading for the camper just as she had been. The idea of her mother or her sister running into those men made Wren's stomach hurt.

The snap of a nearby twig startled Mika and both girls snapped their heads in the direction of the noise. A half rotted walker was shuffling towards them. Wren wasn't as afraid of the dead as she used to be. Carl showed her how to kill them. It wasn't hard. But she had never done it by herself before. Wren pulled her knife from her belt and made sure she had a good grip on it. She didn't rush the walker, she let it come to her. That was how Harley did it. Harley wasn't afraid of anything.

Wren could feel her heart beating in her ears. She pretended she was Harley as the smell of death grew and grew until she felt like she was drowning in it. Finally the monster was close enough. Wren lifted her leg and kicked it's knee as hard as she could, bending it backwards until it cracked and sending the monster flopping to the ground. Lifting her knife, Wren took careful aim. She knew she had to get the thing in it's brain on the first blow. Otherwise she was going to be stuck trying to get her knife back from a stinky monster that wanted to eat her.

Just before she brought her knife down, Wren heard Mika made a tiny little shriek. Wren turned in time to see Lizzie charging at her. The other girl shoved Wren with her hands, knocking her to the ground and almost on top of the walker she was trying to kill. Wren felt it's rotten hands clawing at her clothes, jaws snapping and cracking. Before it could bite her, Tyreese stomped down on it. The walker's head exploded like rotten pumpkin after halloween.

"What were you doing?," he barked at Lizze, offering Wren his hand and helping her up off the ground. Lizzie was staring at the smashed in head of the dead walker. She didn't answer Tyreese until he snapped his fingers in front of her face and asked her the question a second time.

"I was trying to help," Lizzie said. Wren glared at the other girl. Lizzie was obviously lying. How would shoving Wren into the arms of a walker possibly be of any help. And Wren had felt how hard Lizzie had shoved her. It wasn't like the other girl had stumbled into her. That shove was intentional.

Before anything else could be said about the incident, the sounds of someone calling for help could be heard echoing through the forest. Wren moved quickly, snatching Judith up off the ground were Tyreese had laid her when he was changing her diaper. Seeing that the man was ready to charge off after the sounds, Wren grabbed him by the shirt.

"It might be those men," she warned, "What if it's a trick?"

"It might be someone from our group," Tyreese told her, "I have to try and help." Wren nodded. If the person yelling was someone she cared about and they got hurt because she was too afraid to help, Wren would never forgive herself. "Stay right here," Tyreese ordered, "stay together. I'll be right back."

Just as Tyreese disappeared from sight, Judith started to fuss. Her noises quickly progressed from a few quiet baby grumbles to louder and louder crying. Wren bounced the little girl in her arms. She knew Judith was scared and probably crying because she wanted Beth or Carol or even Wren's own mother. Wren understood the feeling. She wanted her mommy too. It was hot and they were all sweaty, uncomfortable and hungry. Judith had every reason to cry. She had just chosen the exact wrong moment to start making noise.

"Shut her up," Lizzie barked.

"Make her a bottle," Wren hissed back at the other girl as she tried again to quiet the baby in her arms by lowering the girl into the crook of her arms and rocking her.

"There's no more water," Lizzie announced.

Mika was carrying the bag that had the water in it. If she had heard her sister's lie she might have been able to help. But she was distracted by a nearby walker that was heading in their direction, attracted by Judith's crying. Mika grabbed a rock she found near her feet and threw it, hoping the noise might distract the monster. But the rustle of the rock hitting a small pile of leaves could barely be heard over Judith's cries. Wren could feel the panic start to rise up inside her again. She rocked Judith back and forth, hoping by some small miracle that the motion would soothe the girl.

Lizzie pushed forward and grabbed Wren's arm, almost causing her to drop the little girl. Then she clamped her hand over Judith's mouth. Wren wasn't sure about the method Lizzie was using to quiet the girl but she had to admit, Lizzie's hand was muffling most of the noise. Wren turned her attention back to the walker. It was still heading in their direction. Mika had one of the guns up, pointing it at the walker. Wren tensed, knowing the worst thing they could do was to shoot a gun off. It would alert everyone dead or alive to their location. And she wasn't willing to take the gamble that her mother would be the one to find them before anyone else did. When Wren looked back down at the child in her arms she could see Judith's eyes were big and round with panic. Lizzie had moved her hand up over the little girl's nose and she was making it hard for the child to breathe.

"Get your hands offa her," Wren hissed, shoving Lizzie away as hard as she could. She hadn't liked being shoved onto a walker. She liked the way Lizzie was treating Judith even less. But what creeped Wren out the most was the intense look on the other girl's face as she was smothering a helpless baby.

Lizzie stumbled back but managed to right herself and keep from falling down. She came at Wren, trying to grab Judith from her arms. Wren had never been in a real fight. But she had been sparring with her much larger and much meaner sister since she was old enough to walk. She shifted Judith to her hip and swung the baby away from Lizzie, putting her body between them. When Lizzie came at her again after being shoved back a second time Wren grabbed for the other girl's hair and yanked it as hard as she could.

"That's enough!"

The voice was familiar and for a moment Wren was sure it belonged to her mother. She released her death grip on Lizzie's hair and backed up a step, spinning towards the woman that had spoken. It wasn't her mother. But it was someone that was almost just as wonderful. Carol was standing a few feet away, her knife bloody from killing the walker that was coming at them.