Carolina in my mind

Chapter 44

"Can I name her anything I want?," Lizzie asked.

The girl was almost bouncing with her excitement as she veered closer to Michonne, tugging the captive walker she'd been put in charge of along behind her. The dog leash snapped tight, jerking the mindless creature forward. Michonne cupped her hand over her ribs as she fought back a laugh and nodded her head.

"She's all yours," Michonne confirmed.

Outside the safety of the prison, Michonne quickly reverted back to the method she'd used to keep herself and Andrea safe on the road. With Tyreese's help, she captured a few walkers and rendered them harmless by cutting off their hands and knocking their teeth out. Not only could they then use the creatures to carry their bags and the heavy case of water they'd pulled from the trunk of their stalled car, having the dead march along among their group also served as effective camouflage. What Michonne wasn't expecting was for the kids to be so excited about it. After she caught the first one, each of them insisted upon having their own 'pet' walker.

"I'm naming mine Griselda Gunderson," Mika announced, pulling her walker forward for Michonne's approval.

"Remember," Lori warned the girls, "...they can only help to keep us safe if we do our part and use our quiet voices." She put her finger against her lips as a reminder for the girls to lower their voices. For the most part, they'd been keeping quiet. And after Lori's gentle reminder, they went back to whispering to each other as they tugged their personal walkers along behind the small trio of adults.

Their original plan was to get into the car Michonne came in and drive around the area looking for other survivors of the governor's attack. But after a few miles, the car sputtered to a stop. Either there wasn't as much gas in the car as Michonne thought, or the gas was no good. None of them knew enough about the inner workings of car engines to know. This left the small group with no option but to continue on foot, which is when Michonne got the idea to catch a few walkers and use them as camouflage against the rest of the dead.

"How about one of those?," Tyreese suggested, pointing down a side street that was lined with residential homes. Michonne nodded her agreement, motioning for the girls to stay close as they altered their course and set off down the overgrown street.

The area looked like it might have been considered an idyllic place to live before the turn. The houses were somewhere between modest and ostentatious with large yards and two car garages. Lori pointed out a white sided house with red brick accents. There was a baby stroller tipped over on the spacious front porch, which she hoped meant they might find diapers and baby supplies inside.

After the pet walkers were secured to the back porch railing, the small group sat down for a dinner of canned fruit and cheese flavored crackers. Lori took the kids upstairs and climbed into the one large bed with them. Tyreese stayed awake to keep watch, letting Michonne rest on the couch with her head on his lap. Despite her assurances that she was going to stay awake and help him, it didn't take long before her breathing went slow and even.

They'd all been through a lot in the last twenty four hours. But Michonne was the only one of them that had a physical altercation with the governor. Tyreese brushed his hand over the coarse ropes of her hair, stopping to stroke the soft round of her cheek with his knuckles before his hand settled comfortably against her shoulder. Like nearly everything about her, even Michonne's exact age remained a mystery to him. He assumed she was a few years younger than him at most. But looking at her now, with her expressions softened by sleep, she appeared much younger than that.

Bad things happened to all of them. Both before and after the turn. But Tyreese had come to the conclusion some time ago that the woman sleeping beside him had been through more than most. Something truly horrible happened to Michonne. He didn't know what. But whatever it was, it made her completely shut down her feelings and build a wall around her heart so thick that he sometimes feared he'd never be able to break it down. Tyreese looked down at Michonne and wondered if Carolina was privy to the woman's closely guarded secrets. It wouldn't surprise him if she was. And thoughts of the tall blonde and the way her loud unapologetic laughter bounced off the cement walls of the prison made him smile. They would all be together again soon, he thought hopefully.

When Tyreese's eyes started feeling heavy, Lori came tiptoeing down the carpeted staircase. Tyreese was hesitant to abandon his post. But Lori assured him that she was already awake to feed Judith. And that she'd wake him immediately if she heard anything suspicious. Tyreese stroked his hand over Judith's head before he headed up the stairs. When Lori rose from the bed, it woke Megan. And Tyreese found her whimpering for her own mother at the top of the staircase. He lifted the girl into his arms and carried her back to bed. Tyreese promised himself he was only going to lay in bed with the girls until Megan fell back asleep. But before long he was snoring right alongside her, sleeping so hard that even her bony elbows and knees weren't bothersome enough to wake him.

"Are you sure you don't want me to go with you?," Michonne asked. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, still looking unsure about staying behind while Tyreese took the kids out with him to search for their friends and family.

"You're hurt. You should rest," he said. There was more concern than authority in his tone. And while Michonne hated being coddled above all things, she actually did feel like pure shit. Everytime she took a full breath in, her ribs burned. Her body hurt worse than it did the day before. And she had a pounding headache that felt like it was coming from directly behind her eyes. "...and besides," Tyreese joked, "I have Griselda Gunderson to protect me."

Lori laughed as she leaned forward and tugged on the back of Michonne's shirt, encouraging the other woman to lean back onto the pile of pillows the kids stacked up behind her. And after one more small huff of protest, Michonne did. Tyreese lifted her hand, pressing a gentle kiss to the back of it before he hurried out of the room and down the stairs to where the kids were waiting eagerly to start the day's adventure.

"Are you two official now?," Lori teased, patting Judith's back as she rested the little girl against her chest. Michonne turned, giving Lori the dirtiest look she could muster up before she grabbed a paperback book off the nightstand and flipped it open. She had more interest in avoiding the conversation Lori wanted to have with her than she did in the played out murder mystery. But she skimmed over the pages anyway, flipping to the end after she finished the first chapter to confirm that she was correct about who the murderer was.

Lori left Judith sleeping in the center of the bed when she went downstairs to hang the clothes she'd been soaking in a bucket up to dry. Michonne was somewhere between mostly asleep and halfway awake when the woman came rushing back into the bedroom.

"There's men outside," Lori hissed, lifting Judith carefully into her arms to avoid waking the girl. Michonne bolted out of bed, grabbing for her sword just in time to hear the front door of the house open and close. The only gun they had with bullets left, Tyreese took with him. Michonne moved, poking her head out the bedroom doorway. She listened, counting the different voices she heard. There were at least five men in the downstairs living room. Maybe more. Far too many for her to take on. Especially if they had guns. The sound of footsteps on the stairs propelled her back into the room. She glanced around in a panic. She could escape out a window. But Lori couldn't. Not with a sleeping baby in her arms.

"Quick. Under the bed," Michonne whispered.

Lori nodded, quickly lowering herself to the floor. She slid under the bed as carefully as she could, keeping her infant daughter close to her body. Michonne was less graceful, hissing at the stabbing pain in her ribs as she maneuvered herself into the small hiding place. They got into place just in time. Because as Michonne clasped her hand over her mouth to keep herself quiet, a well worn pair of boots appeared in the doorway of the room. From her limited vantage point, Michonne could only see the man from the waist down. But that was enough. He had a handgun tucked into the holster on his belt. This wasn't good.

Michonne prayed Lori's daughter would keep quiet as the man flopped onto the bed above them. She could hear his companions downstairs, arguing about which one of them was going to get to rape the owner of her and Lori's undergarments first. That destroyed any remaining hope she had that these men might simply loot the house and move on. The men were planning to wait there until the owner of the clean underwear returned. She knew she was going to have to do something quick. Before Judith woke and alerted them to their presence. Or before Tyreese came back with the girls and walked right into a trap.

The man above them must have been as tired as she was last night. Because it didn't take long before he was snoring above them. Michonne was starting to ease herself out from under the bed when she heard more footsteps in the hall. She cursed under her breath as she slid back into place. The man in the hall entered the room. And not only did he wake the man that was sleeping above them, but he knocked him to the ground and began choking him out. He looked directly at Michonne as his companion strangled him into unconsciousness. The man doing the choking sat on the bed and had a good laugh. Michonne assumed he intended to take a nap of his own. But instead he rose from his spot and headed into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.

"Get that carrier and strap her in," Michonne whispered. "We're going out the window."

Lori didn't look impressed with that plan. But she could see they were out of other options. And Michonne wasn't the only one that heard the other men talking downstairs. Lori had no desire for an interaction with them.

Michonne gripped the bathroom door, holding her sword in the other hand. She whipped it open in one smooth motion, stabbing the man through the chest and slicing his throat before he had time to call for help. He slumped against the wall, his pants still down around his ankles. Michonne moved further into the bathroom, sliding the window open as quietly as she could and slicing through the screen. Lori entered the bathroom, shutting the door behind her. Michonne took the bag of Judith's baby supplies and thrust it out onto the sloping porch roof. Then she gestured for Lori to climb out. She looked terrified, but she did as Michonne instructed, using keep Judith from bobbing around too much in the carrier that was keeping the girl fastened to her chest. The palm of the other hand, she braced against the shingles to steady herself. Michonne moved back through the bathroom, opening the door to the bedroom before she exited out the window and closed it behind her.

Lori's eyes were wide. And she pointed to the porch below and mouthed the words there's one of them down there silently to Michonne. Michonne's eyes widened. And she prayed that the man in the bathroom would reanimate before Judith woke up and decided it was feeding time. Thankfully, just as Judith's eyes were blinking open, there was a loud commotion inside the house. The man that was smoking on the porch darted inside to investigate the noise. And Michonne wasted no time in swinging herself down over the edge of the porch. She about shit herself when she felt someone grab her by the waist.

"It's me!," Tyreese hissed, lifting her gently onto the porch. Lori tossed her bag down next. And while climbing down from the roof with a baby strapped to her chest was no easy feat, Tyreese was able to grab her and help her down the rest of the way. The moment her feet hit the ground the three of them took off running. Judith was jostled around and she began to fuss. But by that time they had already reached the house a few blocks down where Tyreese hid the kids. And they were too far away for the men inside the other house to hear them.

**Just so there's no confusion, Michonne and Carolina's storylines are not being told in chronological order. Shortly after this chapter would be when the Claimers ran into Daryl and Carolina near Merle's cabin. The timelines will catch back up to each other after another chapter or two. I'm not planning to do any other character POVs since I'm not making any major changes to those plotlines. Rick and Carol are with Glenn and Tara. They are still meeting up with Abraham's group. Carl is with Sasha, Bob, and Maggie. Anyone not mentioned here, bit the big one during the governor's attack.**