"There are tomorrows on their way worth the struggles of today. Never give up."
– Richelle E. Goodrich
"Where's Carol?" Maggie asked as soon as Rick got back to the prison. She had been outside, killing as
many walkers as she could, there were at least one hundred against the fence, sooner or later it was going to give in.
"Carl, Judith, are they okay?" Rick asked, ignoring Maggie.
"Yeah."
"Glenn, Hershel, Sasha?"
"Yeah, it's bad, but they're fighting it. Daryl's not back yet," Maggie informed him. "Rick! Rick, where's Carol?"
"It was her. She killed Karen and David. She was trying to stop it from spreading," Rick told her. "Tyreese is gonna be back here soon, so I didn't think she should be here and I couldn't have her here," Rick admitted. "She has a car, supplies, she'll figure it out. I'll tell your dad. Don't tell anyone else yet, especially Cecilia, I need to be the one that tells her."
"Okay," Maggie said nodding, feeling bad for the young girl, she will be heartbroken.
"Would you have brought her back?"
"She said she did it?"
"Yeah."
"Then you were right to send her away," Maggie told him. "I don't know if I could have."
"You could have, Maggie. You've done harder things. Don't doubt yourself," Rick said. "We don't get to anymore."
"Rick, the cluster's getting bigger than the one that took the fence down. We need to do something."
"We will."
Rick grabbed the backpack where the food he had brought was and ran towards the administration building to give the food free of any virus to Carl and the kids.
"Carl? Cici? Carl!" Rick exclaimed as he walked into the building. Carl came running to his encounter.
"You okay?" he asked him a bit worried.
"I was gonna ask you that."
"We're fine," Carl assured him.
"No one's sick? You didn't have to do anything?"
"Haven't had to use my gun, Dad," Carl said.
"And Judith?"
"She's with Beth."
"Good." Rick nodded. "Found some food on the run, there's a bunch of fresh fruit in there. Have everybody brush their teeth after."
Rick threw the big backpack at Carl, trying to keep as far as possible from the brunet boy, it killed him to not be with his kids but he didn't want to make them sick.
"Where's Cecilia?" Rick asked, feeling his heart skipping a bit, he really didn't want to tell her what happened earlier but he needed to. "I need to talk to her."
"I haven't seen her since this morning," Carl told him."Dad, can we come out soon?"
"Not just yet," Rick told him. "Any idea where she could be? Do you think she got sick?"
"I don't think so, she seemed okay. I think she's just worried about Daryl, I think she might be in one of the towers," Carl said. "Dad, I was around you when you were in the middle of it and I was around Patrick, Cecilia was around Mika and Lizzie, we didn't get it. We can help, I can help you."
"Thanks, but I need you to stay here."
"I will," Carl assured him. "But, Dad, you can't keep me from it."
"From what?"
"From what always happens."
"Maybe, but I think it's my job to try."
Inside block A things weren't any better, more people were getting sick and a couple had died. Sasha killed one and Glenn killed the other as soon as he turned and another man was so bad he couldn't breathe on his own, Glenn and Sasha had been pumping air into his lungs, taking turns to do it.
Luckily, the tea Hershel had made with the herbs he found in the woods had helped a bit, at least to make them last a couple of more hours.
They weren't sure how much longer Daryl and the group were going to take, he just needed to earn some time, just until they got back. They had lost two already but Hershel was positive and had faith, unlike Glenn, who was helping Hershel with the sick even when he was pretty sick as well.
Some time later a third person died and the others kept getting worse, this time it was Hershel himself who stabbed the man to prevent him from turning.
It was then and after a talk with Caleb that Hershel finally realized how bad things were getting. He closed the cells, just in case. If someone died and turned, at least they were going to be locked and the people were also going to be locked safely in case a walker could escape.
It was sad but they had come to that.
Rick couldn't find Cecilia so he went to ask Hershel if the girl was there and to tell him about Carol did and the consequences she now had to face because of it. The old man was pretty shocked but he recovered quickly, he had to keep doing his job.
In only a matter of minutes everything turned from pretty bad to a nightmare. A female walker attacked Hershel as he was closing a cell, a woman and a man tried to save him. The woman successfully got it off of Hershel.
The son of the man had died and he came out of the cell as a walker in that exact moment, he bit the man's arm and since he was holding a gun he pulled the trigger accidentally and he killed the woman by shooting her in the head.
Upstairs, things weren't any better. The man Glenn was helping to breathe, called Henry, died. Glenn tried to revive him but as he was trying, Glenn started coughing up blood and he got unconscious, luckily Lizzie, who wasn't as sick, was around and he called 'Henry' and got him to follow her, away from Glenn.
Lizzie tripped and the walker lunged at her, Hershel had seen them from downstairs and got just in time to get the walker off of Lizzie and threw it over the railing. Afterwards Hershel took Lizzie to a cell where a boy was and closed the door, telling them both to keep in there no matter what.
Maggie and Rick, who were outside, chopping tree trunks to help keep the fence up, heard the gunshot. Maggie chose to ignore it and she continued with her task until Rick urged her to go, knowing she was dying to go check on her father and Glenn.
Rick, knowing he needed some help, called for Cecilia, but apparently she wasn't in the tower, or if she was she had fallen asleep so he went for Carl, who didn't need to be asked twice.
Together, father and son, put several tree trunks against the fence. Night had already fell but they kept at it.
Suddenly one of the trunks snapped in two and the fence broke, Rick ran to it, trying to keep the walkers out but it was in vain, there were too many of them. Rick and Carl were lucky, they got inside a room quickly and got to another side of the prison where they were still safe for now.
The two of them ran to grab some rifles and lots of ammunition, when they ran back, the walkers were just breaking the fence, allowing them to pass through, Carl and Rick started shooting but to be honest, two wouldn't make such a big difference.
Oliver had witnessed the commotion outside but he was taking care of the kids inside the building. He ordered them to stay put and lock the door, as soon as they nodded, Oliver ran outside with his gun ready and went to help Rick and Carl.
Inside the prison things had gotten chaotic, there were lots of walkers and Hershel was the only one that could kill them until Maggie joined him.
Also, Glenn had many difficulties breathing. Hershel struggled with walker Henry to get back the bag that they used to help him breathe to use it with Glenn, Maggie shot the walker in the head and Hershel was able to get it.
Together, they intubated Glenn and started pumping air into his lungs. He hadn't stopped coughing up blood and the sight of him was heartbreaking but only seconds after Hershel started pumping air, Glenn got stabilized.
Some moans could still be heard but right now things seemed to have cooled down, the screaming stopped and Glenn was breathing, with help but he was.
Outside, somehow, Oliver, Carl and Rick had managed to kill all the walkers that had gotten in. Now they were just walking around the big pile that formed to make sure all of them were dead-dead, and if they weren't, they just stabbed them with a stick or something.
Suddenly, as they were killing the last walkers, Carl saw a car approaching the prison. His heart got warm with hope and happiness to see Michonne, Daryl and the others had finally come back.
"Dad everything's gonna be okay," he said.
Carl didn't waste another second, he just ran to open the gates, Rick hurried to open the gate of the second fence so they could get closer to the prison with the car, while Oliver kept an eye on the walkers, they had checked and they were all dead but you could never be too cautious.
"Sasha? How's Sasha?" Tyreese asked before he even got out of the car.
"I don't know. I'm sorry," Rick said.
"Well, get in there," Daryl told him and Tyreese didn't need to be told twice, he sprinted towards block A before anyone could even blink.
Bob ran after Tyreese, he was a doctor and he was going to be really needed inside there, Hershel couldn't do everything and he should be exhausted, he had been on his feet (more like his foot) all day long, which is very draining for anyone, especially a man who was in his early seventies.
Michonne, Daryl, Carl, Oliver and Rick rushed to the part of the fence that gave away. Carl was guarding no more of them were near as the other four were fixing it, at least just for now.
And as soon as they checked it was okay for now, Rick, Oliver and Carl finally had time to breathe, killing all those walkers wasn't easy.
"How's everybody?" Michonne asked.
"We're not sure," Rick told him. "I went on a run earlier and then we had the problem of the fence."
Daryl looked around and noticed Cecilia wasn't there, he noticed as soon as they came but he had other things to worry about but now that he had taken care of that, he could worry about Cecilia.
"Where is Cecilia?" he asked, looking at everyone but mostly at Carl, he knew she should be with the boy.
"Uh, well..." Rick started but Daryl interrupted him quickly.
"Did she get sick?"
"No, she didn't," Rick assured him.
"Then, where the hell is she?" Daryl asked, raising his voice with every word.
"We don't know," Rick said quite fast after taking a very big breath.
"What?" Daryl exclaimed outraged, looking at Rick with wide eyes.
"I just came here not long ago, I know as much as you," Rick said in a calm voice. "But I'm sure she should be around."
"Dad," Carl said, his face showed nothing but fear. "She has been missing since around ten."
That didn't make anyone feel any less nervous, Rick thought she was just up in a tower sleeping or taking a nap in the building but with all these gunshots he actually expected her to be around to help, but she never joined them.
"You don't know where she is?" Oliver asked in surprise, he didn't seem scared she hadn't been seen for hours, Rick and Michonne noticed and they felt a lot of curiosity about it.
"Do you?" Michonne exclaimed.
"Yeah," Oliver said very calmly. "She went out with Sean earlier, don't you remember?" he asked, looking at Rick.
"Me? Why should I remember?" Rick asked confused.
"You told Sean to check the snares and take Cici with him, I was a bit surprise he was going with her so I asked him why," Oliver said. "Sean said you thought it would do Cecilia good to go out of here for a bit."
Rick's stomach turned and not in a good way, he had no idea what was going on but he knew something wasn't right here. He took a few steps towards Oliver and looked him straight in the eye, Oliver was just confused, so Rick assumed he wasn't lying.
"I didn't said that to Sean," Rick exclaimed in the most calm tone he could manage. "When I left I told him to take care of the kids and be alert for anything, you and him were the oldest that hadn't been exposed."
"Where the fuck did they go?" Daryl shouted, not being able to control his anger, as he walked towards his girlfriend's friend, Michonne grabbed him by his arm to stop him.
"They were going to check the snares and then go look for a hose, I think, I'm not sure."
Daryl didn't need to hear anything else, he grabbed his crossbow and walked towards the entrance, he was going to look for Cecilia. Rick called after him but he didn't stop, so Rick had to catch up with him and stand in front of him to stop him.
"Daryl, listen, Daryl," he said, putting a hand over his chest to not let him walk any further. "She's probably okay, there's no need to worry. She'll be back soon."
"You know that's just bullshit," Daryl exclaimed angrily. "He fucking lied to her and she has been gone for hours, I'm going."
Daryl tried to walk past Rick but he didn't let him. Rick knew very well all this situation was very weird but he had to try to think positive, they couldn't just lose their heads and run into the woods at this time, it was too dangerous.
"You can't track at this time," Rick said trying to get some sense into Daryl's head. "You might step on her tracks and ruin them, you are not thinking right. If she's not here in an hour, I'll go with you to look for her, we'll take a car and maybe they just got lost or they are trapped inside a store or something."
"Rick," Daryl whispered, getting closer to him so he could say it in his ear so no one else could hear. "Sean likes Cecilia, he has for a long time. What if this is a trap? We can't wait an hour."
"Okay," Rick said nodding. "But we won't take long, an hour at the most. People here need us."
Rick asked Michonne to look after Carl while he and Daryl were going out. Daryl didn't want to take the car because they might be in the woods but he knew it was very dangerous to be out there during the night and he might ruin the tracks like Rick said.
Cecilia's POV
This time when I woke up the only difference was that it was daytime but my vision was really blurry and my head was killing me, I was so disorientated I barely remembered what happened last night, if that was actually last night.
I remembered being in a room with a man, who fed me and gave me some water but everything was so foggy that I wasn't even sure if that really happened or if it was just a dream.
I closed my eyes again, it wasn't like I could see much anyway and I silently prayed to get out of here, to be safe. I was at it for around an hour and when I was done I opened my eyes again and I could see a bit more, at least enough to know I wasn't in the same room I was last night.
It was then when I realized my hands weren't tied behind me anymore, but in front of me and I was lying on a bed, it was actually very comfortable.
The walls of the room were painted a light lilac colour and there were some dolls and stuffed animals on some of the shelves here, in the others there were lots of books and trophies. I had no doubt I was in a normal house and that this room belonged to a girl, probably not older than thirteen.
I tried to sit up but I was way too weak to even do something as simple as that, I tried to move my feet but this time they were tied as well.
There were some posters on the walls, I could tell the girl was a huge fan of Harry Potter. She even had stuff from it, there was a wand on the shelf in front of me, plus some other stuff. If I wasn't in this situation I would think this was pretty cool, I always liked Harry Potter, I even tried to get my mum to buy me a shirt once, she didn't that day but the next day she went to the store and got it for me, she gave it to me for my birthday, which was two weeks after that.
Thinking of my mum made me just snap and I started to violently struggle in the bed, trying to break free but nothing, I was unsuccessful. I was getting very desperate, I felt trapped and when I do, because of my claustrophobia, I get panic and anxiety attacks.
I started to hyperventilate, tears ran down my face, not because I was scared but because of my desperation, not being able to move was driving me crazy.
And then I just stopped struggling, my headache worsened and the only thing I was achieving was that now my feet and hands were irritated from the rope around them and if I wasn't careful I was going to fall from the bed.
Instead I tried to focus on the things inside the room and not on the fact that I couldn't move. I saw an autographed baseball on one of the shelves, I never was a fan of that sport so I had no idea who possibly could have autographed that ball.
I also noticed there were some posters of girls swimming, so maybe this girl was an athlete and got the trophies by swimming, she must have been really good because there were a lot of them.
I also saw a complete collection of the Sims 2 video game. This girl had every expansion pack and stuff pack that was released, it was impressive. I always wanted that game and I actually got it as a Christmas present and I eventually got two expansion packs. I was addicted to the game, it was sad but in the game I could control everything and my sims mostly had perfect lives, loving parents, successful children, many pets and beautiful and expensive houses too.
My friends usually made dramas in the game, including adultery, teen pregnancies, deaths and abuse sometimes, they said it was entertaining to watch that, for me it wasn't. Instead I made them live the life I always wanted to have. Once I actually created myself, well, not really myself but a girl that I eventually felt like it was me. She had a job, perfect grades, three siblings, all perfect too. I sent her to university, where she found the love of her life and when they graduated they got married and she had amazing kids.
I knew it wasn't healthy, I was getting lost in a fantasy and getting depressed because my reality wasn't as perfect so I sold the game and stopped playing. It was a pretty hard decision to make but I knew it was for the best.
It was not until I looked to my right that I saw the night table. There were two picture frames on it. The first had a picture of a happy family, two middle-aged parents, the father had grey hair and the mother was blonde. There were also one blond boy of around five years, and two girls, one was around eight, she was a brunette and the other was blonde, she was between twelve and fourteen, probably the owner of this room.
The second picture was of the older girl in the picture with two other girls just as old-looking as her,
one was Asian and the other was a redhead with curly hair, who reminded me an awfully lot to Amanda. I could almost assure that girl was Amanda but the girl in the picture had brown eyes and Amanda's eyes were grey.
Not focusing on being trapped was working, my breathing had gone back to normal and I wasn't feeling the same desperation I had minutes ago.
I kept looking at the things inside the room until my eyes landed on a specific Barbie doll that was on a shelf to my left. This doll in particular wasn't like the rest, she wasn't blonde with blue eyes, this one had dark skin, straight black hair and green eyes.
I felt my eyes watering at the sight of that doll. Sophia had that doll, she got it not long before the world hit the fan. She showed me a picture of her birthday presents and the doll was one of them, later when I visited, she showed me the doll, she said she loved it because she was different from all the other dolls she had gotten.
I was about to break down when my mentality changed. I got an encouraging thought. What if that doll was in here for a reason? Maybe to give me hope in some way, to remind me that Sophia wouldn't want me to be here and give up. She would have wanted me to stay strong and not being scared, there wasn't much I could do about that because I was scared but scared or not I wouldn't give up, I was going to find a way to get out of here, I knew that.
But as the thought of freedom crossed my mind I remembered I was tied without any possibility to move and I started to breathe heavily again and I knew I was about to have another panic attack. I started to struggle once again, trying to kick and move my arms, and this time I was hitting the wall with my hands, making some noise.
Suddenly the door was opened and I saw the same man coming inside the room, he was wearing the same hood as yesterday and he had his head low, preventing me from seeing his face.
"Shh, calm down," he said as he walked towards the bed, he sat next to me and put his hands on either side of my shoulders with a lot of force, making me stop moving. "Easy now."
I tried to get out of his hold but I couldn't, I felt so helpless. I couldn't even turn around and lie on my side, it was so frustrating. I looked up at the man and because of how close he was I could see his face, his eyes and I gasped, getting so pissed at him.
"What the fuck?" I yelled. "Let me go!"
"I'm afraid I can't do that."
"You kidnapped me, Sean?" I asked in disbelief.
"I wouldn't call it that, it doesn't sound nice," he said as he took off his hood.
"What the fuck?" I repeated.
"Just calm down."
"I suffer from claustrophobia, you know that," I exclaimed. "Can you at least release my feet? Please, I can barely sit up, I'm too weak to escape."
"I know, that's an effect of the drug," he said way too calmly, like if we were discussing the most normal thing in the world. "You will feel weak for at least a whole day. I will cut the rope but don't even try to run, you will fall down and you will lose my trust."
"Where are we?"
"During a run with Oliver we came across a nice neighbourhood, there are almost no walkers and this house has bars on the windows downstairs, so it's safer than the rest. We'll be fine."
Sean grabbed a knife from his jeans, when I looked closely at it, I noticed it was my knife. I felt rage inside of me as I saw him using my weapons and who knows where it's my gun. Sean smiled in a really scary way after he cut the rope from my feet. I bent my knees and then stretched them, it felt so good to being able to do that.
"Are you going to kill me?" I asked him without showing any kind of fear.
"That's not the plan, babe."
I almost puked and kicked him after he called me that but I controlled myself for my own good. I couldn't kick him and expect him to not tie my feet again.
I looked into his green eyes and what I saw made me almost lose my cool. They were empty, they didn't show mercy, or love, or even fear, or regret, or hatred or anxiousness, or anything at all. I could only see one thing in them and I didn't like it at all, it was madness.
I had seen that same look in a few people when I was in jail, so I knew that look. They weren't there for long, some just lost their minds there, I almost lost mine and I probably got to look close to that.
"Are you sure it's safe here?" I asked him. "I don't want to be like this if a walker or a lot of them find me here."
"That won't happen," he assured me but I wasn't that convinced.
Later he put his hand inside the pocket of his pullover, he had a crazy smile on his lips, making me fear for my life right there and then and I wasn't that wrong. He took out a syringe and I freaked out at the sight of it.
"Woah," I exclaimed.
I attempted to crawl away from him but I only moved a few inches before he grabbed me by my arm and dragged me back to the middle of the bed. I just shook my head at him as I pleaded.
"Please, don't, please!"
"Shh, don't be scared," he told me. "This will just relax you for a couple of hours, I need to go out so I can't take any chances with you."
"Don't drug me again, please, I can go with you if you want!"
"I want you to come with me, babe, but in your condition, you wouldn't even make it out of the house. Don't worry, you'll be fine."
I kicked and struggled as Sean grabbed me again but he got on top of me, straddling me, and in no time he injected me on my shoulder and he got off of me as I tried hard not to cry.
Sean kissed the top of my head and then he left the room, closing the door after him. I didn't feel dizzy or black out right away but when it started to happen I couldn't help but cry.
I had never, ever, felt to impotent, so powerless in my entire life, not even my father achieved to make me feel like this. I could at least put some kind of defence, begged him to stop or run to my room and lock the door and then go to school and escape for a bit, but here my only escape was when I was unconscious and I really preferred to be awake, I wasn't sure what he could be capable of, I didn't want to be unconscious and being even more vulnerable. I cried until I reluctantly fell into a very deep sleep.
So, Daryl just found Cecilia is missing. What will happen now?
Hope you enjoy the chapter and thanks for keep reading :)
So guys, good news, I started training yesterday after my three weeks breaks because of my injury. I didn't feel any kind of pain while I did it but I felt some afterwards, which I think is normal.