"Hope itself is like a star- not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity,
and only to be discovered in the night of adversity. "
– Charles Haddon Spurgeon
The next morning Hershel informed us we needed to move to this other building we barely use but it was free of walkers and probably free of the virus, back in the day it was used for administration so it was better looking than the blocks but we hadn't found a good use for it yet.
During one of our runs months ago we found a prosthesis for Hershel, making him more independent. He no longer uses the crutches and he can pretty much walk normally, like before he lost his leg, which was pretty good, Hershel was very please when we gave it to him.
We hadn't even eaten breakfast when we heard of some pretty bad news. Karen and David got sick the day before, so they were isolated from the rest. Tyresse found their bodies, someone had killed the two of them, dragged them outside and burnt their bodies. A hypothesis was that the person killed them because they were sick and was trying to prevent the virus from spreading but no one really knew the truth.
Rick got into a huge fight with Tyresse, who was a complete mess. Tyresse and Karen had been dating for a while and finding your girlfriend like that must be horrible. We were used to people dying but she didn't die by the virus, she wasn't bit, she was murdered by someone inside the prison and that was a scary thought. I didn't even want to think what I would do in his position.
Carl and I were outside when we saw three people coughing, looking very, very sick. The man was actually coughing blood, the two women weren't but they looked just as bad, I put my arm around Carl and dragged him inside, away from them.
I went to my cell to pack while Carl did the same. I put some shirts and another pair of jeans inside my bag, plus my two knives and my gun, I was done quickly, I didn't have much to be honest. I put the backpack over my shoulders and went downstairs, where I saw Carl staring at the family picture Michonne helped him get months ago.
Then we heard the door being opened and seconds later we saw Rick walking towards us, the rest were already in the administration building, it was just us that still needed to get there. We had been trying to push it aside as long as we could.
"It's for your own good," Rick told us.
"I'm fine," Carl muttered, obviously pissed. "I don't want to be locked away with a bunch of kids."
"I need you in there keeping an eye on Judith and everybody else," Rick said. "You two are in charge, make sure they're safe. If anybody gets sick, you let me know."
"What if they've already turned when we find them?" Carl asked as he finished putting his stuff inside his backpack and grabbed his gun.
"You don't fire unless you absolutely need to," Rick told him.
"But you know I might need to, right?" Carl said and Rick just looked straight at me.
"I'll be there, I can do it," I said quickly, knowing what Rick was trying to tell me with his light blue eyes.
None of them said anything else, Carl just walked away, pissed. I looked sadly at Rick, who had a cut on his left cheek and had a bandage around his right hand, probably from the fight with Tyresse earlier.
"How's your hand?" I asked him.
"Fine," he muttered. "Will you take care of Carl and Judith?"
"I always do, you don't even have to ask me that," I said with a small smile. "Has more people gotten sick?"
"Yeah," he said nodding. "Sasha's gotten it, Caleb, some other people as well. Twelve died yesterday plus Karen and David."
"What about us? Has anyone of us gotten sick?" I asked him.
"No, not yet," he said. "Your mother, Glenn, Axel, Daryl, they are okay so far."
"Okay," I said, just a bit relieved. "I could go look for something if you need to, anything. I can take a car and..."
"There's no need to, there'll be a run to get antibiotics but if we need anything else I'll let you know, now go, the less time we spend together the better."
"Alright," I said, not wanting to argue with Rick.
I slowly made my way out of block C, gripping the belts of my backpack as I walked to the other building. We were going to stay with all the kids but we were still going to keep our distance from them because they had been exposed and we hadn't. Beth and Judith were going to be completely isolated from everybody else, Judith was the youngest and the most vulnerable.
Feeling really hopeless I let my backpack fall to the ground in the room I was staying with Carl, I walked to where the window was and leant against the wall as I looked outside, where I had a good sight of the prison grounds.
Almost a minute later I spotted Daryl in front of a car with the hood up as he checked if the car was in good shape, Michonne and Bob were next to either side of the car, talking to Daryl and that's when I realized they were the ones that were going on the run, slightly pissed Rick didn't tell me that, I stormed out of the building and went to where they were. As I got closer Daryl looked up at me and he just sighed, probably knowing what was coming. He just looked away and restarted doing whatever he was doing before he looked at me.
"I want to go," I stated firmly, stopping a few steps behind Daryl and putting my hands on my hips.
"No."
"Why not?"
"I've been exposed, you haven't. We can't be in the same car," Daryl told me, as he kept checking the car not even bothering to look up at me.
"Michonne hasn't either and I can see she's going."
"You are of no use," Daryl said harshly to me as he finally turned around to face me, leaning against the car. I bit my lip, pretending those words didn't hurt me, I knew Daryl could be tactless and sometimes quite rude, I was used to the way he was, except, that normally he isn't like that towards me. "Do you know anything about medicine names, Cecilia? Besides, there is no room left."
"I only see three people," I exclaimed as I crossed my arms in front of me.
"Tyresse is coming," Michonne said. "I'll go get more gas."
Michonne walked away quickly, probably to give us some privacy and that left Daryl, Bob and me. Bob stood awkwardly a few feet away from us, he hadn't been around much to witness one of our arguments, which usually aren't that bad, just stupid and senseless.
"I don't want you coming, okay?" Daryl exclaimed. "I fucking care about you, I don't want you getting sick. Glenn just got it, don't you understand, Cecilia? People are dying! I don't have time to argue with you."
"I just don't get why Michonne can go and I can't," I said angrily after I recovered from the news of Glenn being sick. "What about Bob?"
"Bob's a doctor, he knows what we are looking for. Do you know any of this?" Daryl asked me, showing me a small paper where about ten names of medicines were written, he took it away before I could read the first name. "And Michonne's old enough to decide for herself and..."
"So, I'm not old enough?" I exclaimed quickly. "Am I too young to know what I'm doing? I'm not mature enough to take my own decisions, Daryl? To take care of myself?"
"Cecilia!" he said loudly, shutting me up, stepping right in front of me in an intimidating way. "You know that's not what I meant! I just need to bring the antibiotics, damn it! I have enough things to handle right now, don't make this worse for me. We'll talk later, okay? Now go."
"Whatever," I mumbled and left, being really pissed.
When I went back to the building I noticed Hershel and Carl where nowhere to be found, I looked for them almost everywhere but couldn't find them, instead I found a crying Mika.
"Hey," I said softly. "What's the matter? Is it about your dad?"
"No," she cried. "Lizzie just got sick."
"Oh."
"I don't want to be left alone," she said as she cried harder.
"You won't be left alone," I told her. "Lizzie will be okay, you'll see. And you have me and my mum and so many other people, you won't be alone."
"Everyone's dying."
"Yeah, they are," I said sadly. "But they are going to get medicine and the people will get better, you'll see."
I actually wanted to hug the little girl and make her feel better but I couldn't get any closer, she was exposed, her sister just got sick and they are always together, getting closer to her would put me at risk.
"Why don't you go join the other kids?" I told her. "You might find something to play with."
The girl nodded at me, stood up and went to the room where the other kids were. I grabbed my gun, which was in the waistband of my jeans on my back and started to walk around the building, checking if everything was okay, that there were no walkers.
As I was about to finish checking the building I saw Carl walking in, he also had his gun in his hand. I smiled at him, waited for him to approach me and then ruffled his long hair when he was close enough. He hadn't worn his sheriff hat for a few months now, said it didn't fit with him being a farmer now and all that.
"Where were you?" I asked him as the two of us went up the stairs to our room.
"Hershel went outside for some berries to make a tea for the sick, I couldn't let him go alone," he told me. "Where were you?"
"Uh," I looked at him, knowing that he would get even more pissed if I tell him that I tried to go on the run. "I, uh, I went out to say good-bye to Daryl, he's going to get antibiotics, Michonne is going too."
"Why? She twisted her ankle yesterday, she can't run for long."
"I don't know, Carl," I said as we walked into our room. "You know how stubborn she is and probably there's no one as good as her, they probably need her."
"And they don't need you?"
"Apparently not," I said, trying not to sound upset. "I'm of more use here."
Carl and I sat on the floor, eventually lied down as we talked about lots of things, we tried not to talk about walkers or the virus or death. I told him that one time I joined the soccer team and I scored my first goal ever and I was so excited and he told me about one time Rick allowed him to go in his police car with the siren on, said it was pretty cool.
Later we stood up and walked around the building again, just to see everything was alright. We checked on the kids and asked them if they felt alright, we asked them if they had coughed lately or felt like if they had fever but they all said they felt good and assured us they were okay.
When we got back to our room, I opened my backpack and took out a small book and opened it where I had a pen inside. It was a book with two or three Sudoku's in each page. Michonne got me one about five months ago, I tried it and I loved the little game, Carl wasn't so much into it but we had nothing else to do, so I passed him a second book and he started doing one as well.
For months we had lived a pretty normal life, we have board games of lots of kinds, we have monopoly, cards, chess, Trivia games to keep educated in some way and we also have puzzles and the Sudokus so our minds get challenged from time to time.
At the moment we had a puzzle of New York in progress, it was one thousand pieces and all of us were building it together. Unfortunately we couldn't bring it here for obvious reasons, we couldn't carry it here without turning it apart, but that would keep me occupied for a very long time, maybe even days.
We decided to not get complicated so we just grabbed junk food bags, not wanting to cook. I gave the rest of the kids some bags and some bottles of waters and left quickly after I asked them again how they felt, luckily they all seemed okay.
Carl and I opened a big bag of Doritos, sat on the floor and started eating. Normally we don't eat things like these, we eat as healthy as we can. We eat animals, eat lots of vegetables, fruits and grains and just from time to time we allow ourselves to eat some treats, including junk food, chips, chocolates, sweets and more often we eat nuts.
Actually, Maggie had found a tree of almonds and another of cashews, so we often have them, not just when we go on runs and find bags of them.
"You heard that Glenn got sick?" Carl muttered sadly.
"Yeah," I mumbled. "Daryl told me, Sasha's sick too."
"They'll be okay, right? They just have to."
"Yeah, they have to."
Not long after that I fell asleep, we had agreed that I would keep guard during the night, so I slept while Carl, Sean and Oliver were up. It was Oliver who woke me up around 9:00, I stretched, making my back crack a bit and rubbed my eyes.
"Are Daryl and Michonne back yet?" I asked after I yawned.
"No," Sean stated without any kind of emotion.
"How are the kids?"
"They are fine," Oliver told me.
"What about Judith and Beth?"
"They are good," Carl told me.
"Okay, good," I said, grabbing my gun and a flashlight.
"Wake me up around 2:00," Sean told me, I only nodded at him.
Oliver and Sean left the room, they were given a room in the first floor. Carl lied down on a small mattress we had brought. I told him good-night as I grabbed the keys of this building.
"I'll lock the door," I told him as I kissed the top of his head. "So you can sleep well and not worry about anything."
"Okay," he said, already with his eyes closed.
"I'll be back in about five hours," I said and then left the room, locking the door after I closed it.
Walking alone in these dark corridors with the possible threat of walkers was very scary and it didn't help that the sky was very cloudy, preventing some moonlight to pass through, making everything even darker.
I checked every hall and every room, including where the kids where, they were all sleeping and I hadn't heard a single cough or anything, so that was good.
After I was done checking the entire building I went inside a room in the second floor and stood by the window, looking intensively around the entrance area and the road that leads there, hoping to see a car coming back but I saw nothing for a very long time.
I did a second and even third round around the building, always with my gun in my left hand and the flashlight in my right hand and all the time between the rounds, I just stood in front of the window, hoping to see Daryl coming back.
Before I knew it was already past 2:00, almost forty minutes had passed since then. I sighed and went to the room Oliver and Sean were sleeping in. I softly shook Sean's body to wake him up, when I made sure he wasn't going to fall asleep again, I stood up and left the room.
As I was going up the stairs, I felt chills going up and down my spine and like if another presence was around. I turned around quickly, afraid there could be a walker but it was just Sean, he was at the bottom of the stairs, I jumped in surprise as I put my hand over my mouth to stop me from screaming and then moved it to where my heart is, which was beating extremely fast.
"You scared me," I muttered, letting out a nervous laugh. "Well, I should be going."
I continued my way up and I heard Sean going up as well, he said nothing he just followed me. I walked to the room Carl and I were sharing and oddly enough Sean followed me all the way there without saying a single word. I turned around feeling extremely uncomfortable, Sean just looked straight at me, I could almost swear he wasn't even blinking.
I tried to smile as I grabbed the keys and turned around to open the door, I was holding my gun tightly in my other hand, I didn't feel comfortable or even safe by turning my back on him, Sean was acting so weird I was afraid of him.
I finally found the correct key and I breathed in relief when I felt the knock getting unlocked, I turned around and just saw Sean staring at me with his green eyes that now seemed like panther's eyes looking at its prey.
I tried to tell him good-night and act cool as I quickly opened the door and I rushed inside, locking the door again as fast as I could. I breathed heavily, hoping that I was just exaggerating things, Sean had changed a lot during these months, he had gone back to normal like if he had finally gotten over his uncle's death.
Five minutes passed and Sean didn't move from his spot, I could see his blurry silhouette through this small tempered glass. It was not until I saw him leave and heard his footsteps getting away that I allowed myself to lie down next to Carl and fell asleep for a few more hours.
Around 8:00, I washed my face to wake up properly and headed outside. I saw my mum and approached her, I wanted to know about the group that went out last night. She was trying to fill some small containers with water but apparently we were running out of water as well.
"Are they back yet?" I asked.
"No, not yet," she told me. "How's Mika?"
"She seems okay, she's just sad, how's Lizzie?"
"She has mild coughs, she's not that bad," she said. "Rick and I will go on a run. We need more food and other stuff, we can't eat the food in D, it's too much of a risk."
"Alright," I said. "I assume I can't go."
"No, I'm sorry," she said with a sad smile. "I have to tell you two things, Cici."
"What? Please, don't tell me someone died," she just looked down at the ground making my heart skip a beat, in a bad way.
"Glenn didn't die, right?" I asked quickly. "Please, tell me he didn't die, mum."
"No, he's very sick but still alive. Axel also got it this morning, that's one of the things I wanted to tell you" she told me and I just nodded. "Sweetheart, Amanda was one of the people that died yesterday."
I looked at her in disbelief and utter shock. I found her quite annoying most of the time but I liked the girl, we had bonded in these seven months. I could call her a friend plus she reminded me a lot of Chris, my first and only friend in Woodbury during my stay there.
"Oh," I said nodding, biting my bottom lip.
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay," I said quickly. "I knew she wouldn't last long, she couldn't even use a knife."
"Cici..."
"I'm good," I said interrupting her, not wanting to hear anything of what she had to say to me. "Be careful on the run, okay? I can't lose any more people, not now."
I then headed to my original destination, the tower. I got up and grabbed some binoculars to look all around, mostly looking for any sign of Daryl. I knew they could take a whole day to come back but I was getting very anxious and nervous. I was not used to be the one left in the prison, I was usually the person people get worried about.
I saw Sean down there, next to Rick who was talking to him, Sean nodded and then Rick pat his shoulder before getting inside the Hyundai, my mum was already inside in the passenger seat. Sean ran to the fence and opened the door for Rick and then closed it quickly.
I grabbed the binoculars again and looked through them, praying to see Daryl coming back. Not only he had left to a dangerous place but we argued just before he left, that conversation just couldn't be our last... ever.
"Hey," I jumped in surprise and looked behind me, Sean was there with a smile on his lips, looking completely normal, nothing like last night.
"Rick told me I should go check the snares and maybe go look for a new hose, the one we have is filled with mud," he told me. "Want to come?"
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah."
"Didn't you check the snares yesterday?"
"We are running out of food, we need to check if we caught something else, so you are coming?"
"Of course," I told him.
"Do you have everything you need?" I nodded at him. "Cool, I'll go look for someone to open the gate for us."
While Sean went looking for someone, I put my gun and knife in my waistband, redid my bun and went down the tower. I stood by the fence and I thought I should do something with this free time, so I grabbed a stick that was nearby and killed some of the walkers that were close enough for me to kill so when we got out, there wouldn't be so many walkers around.
About ten minutes later, Sean came back with Oliver, he greeted me with a smile and I returned the gesture. I had killed about twenty walkers during this time. I left the stick back where I found it and stood by the gate.
"Be careful," Oliver told us as he opened the gates and we both ran outside, making sure to evade the walkers closer to us.
We killed five between the two before we got into the woods, luckily we weren't followed. Sean led the way, going to the closest snare, where we found a small rabbit. Sean grabbed the dead animal, put it inside a bag and then set the snare again while I looked around in case some walkers had come after us.
"Why did you come with me and not Oliver?" I asked as Sean finished, it was mostly the two of them now, they were inseparable.
"Rick said you might need to do this, to get out of the prison, he was the one that suggested the idea of taking you," Sean told me. "Besides, Oliver is supposed to be on guard in the administration building and take care of the kids now."
We walked to the second snare, which was empty. Sean checked if it was set and once he made sure we continued walking. On the way to the third snare we came across three walkers. I ran to the closest and stabbed it in its eye while Sean took care of the second and when I was done, I went for the third, killing it quickly.
"Come on," I told him, cleaning the blade with a leave.
The third and fourth snare were also empty but the fifth wasn't, we found a big bird. Sean grabbed it and put it in the bag too and re-set the snare.
"There's a place close to here," he told me. "About three blocks away once we find the road. We'll go for the hose there."
Sean and I turned to the left instead of keep going straight towards the next snare. It took us about ten minutes to get out of the woods and we only came across one walker, which was really, really good.
We walked on the road for a few minutes until we finally saw some small shops. The sun was shining up in the sky, almost right above us, meaning it was almost midday.
I ran my arm across my forehead, drying some sweat, Sean noticed and offered me a bottle of water he had brought with him, I took a sip and thanked him as I handed it back to him, who also took a sip.
"We should have taken a car," I whined. "We would have been back by now."
"We can't take the car inside the woods and the shop we need to go isn't far," Sean assured me. "We have to save gas whenever we can.
Sean turned to our left, got into this kind of commercial area and we passed some stores, they mostly had clothes there and I was tempted to grab a pretty shirt that a mannequin had but there could be walkers inside, I should postpone it.
"Oh, there it is," Sean exclaimed as he pointed at the farthest store.
I quickened my pace to the store, I looked inside through the dusty window and saw there were lots of things for gardening, Rick would love this. I tapped the window twice to see if there were walkers inside but apparently the store was empty. I smiled at Sean and walked towards the door, putting my hand on the knob and surprisingly it was opened.
"Come on," I said.
I turned my back on Sean, I knew there could be walkers around, maybe trapped inside somehow, so I was going to be as cautiously as possible, I didn't want any kind of surprises, especially like the last one when dozens of walkers fell from the ceiling.
I pushed the door opened and as I put one feet inside, I suddenly felt a hand over my mouth and the other around my chest. Sean, or I thought it was him, was holding me against his chest and he had some kind of cloth in the hand that was covering my mouth and it smelt funny.
I struggled to break free, I tried to kick him and hit him and I actually succeeded when I kicked him down there, making him fall to the floor, but I was starting to get really, really dizzy. I tried to run away from him but I didn't get far. My vision was getting blurry and dark, I stumbled as I attempted to continue walking but my legs eventually gave in and I fell down.
I prayed that no walkers would find me like this, I would be like a free meal. I felt tears filling my eyes just before everything turned black and I lost consciousness.
Uh-oh, what is going to happen now? As promised this new book will be filled with more drama, which is what is coming in the next chapters!
Tell me your opinions and predictions of what is going to happen!
xx