"It can take years to mold a dream.
It takes only a fraction of a second for it to be shattered."
– Mary E. Pearson, The Kiss of Deception
The first person that noticed the ring was Carl. We were helping Rick with the crops two days after Daryl proposed when he saw it and asked about it. When I told him, his lips turned into a huge grin and in seconds I had his arms around me, he was probably more excited about it than Daryl and I put together, I begged him not to tell anyone and he promised he wouldn't tell a soul.
Daryl and I knew we couldn't keep this a secret for long but we didn't know how to break the news, so, every time we tried we ended up backing away and saying nothing.
Daryl told everyone about us being together almost a year ago so I decided it was my turn to tell them this time. About ten days later after Carl found out, I told everyone at breakfast and showed them the ring. Rick smiled but he didn't look surprised like the rest of them.
Beth and Maggie had their mouths wide open in shock but once they recovered, they hugged me and even hugged Daryl, who looked a bit taken aback and slowly and awkwardly hugged them back.
Glenn was as surprised as everyone but he was the first to congratulate us and to hug me, telling me I should make him my 'maid of honour' but in a male version because I was his 'best woman' at his wedding, and honestly, if I ever have a wedding I couldn't think of anyone better than Glenn.
Hershel congratulated us too but he didn't look just as happy as everyone, I always knew he didn't fully accept our relationship because of the age difference but he still respected our choices and didn't even give his opinion, which I was thankful about. Oliver flashed me a small smile but he was still in his depressive mood.
Michonne was one of the happiest people, she congratulated us both with a big smile on her lips, she hugged me tightly and patted Daryl's back. Sasha acted pretty much the same as Michonne but she hugged us both while her brother just shook our hands but he was also happy for us.
When I told them, Mika and Lizzie, were also pretty excited about the news. They hugged me both at the same time and told me how amazing it was, later when they saw Daryl, they hugged him too. Daryl even lifted Mika off the ground and carried her with one hand while he had his other hand around Lizzie's shoulder while they walked towards me.
But all that was about another ten days or so ago, everyone had gotten used to the idea of our engagement by now, even the people that didn't know us well. It was still talked every day but the fuss about it wasn't as big, except for Carl, who kept being the most excited about it.
"Earth to Cici," Michonne said as she waved a hand in front of my eyes, I blinked and shook my head.
"Sorry," I mumbled.
At the moment, Sasha, Michonne and I were on the tower keeping watch but apparently I wasn't doing my job that well.
"What are you thinking about?" Michonne asked me but she returned her gaze to the woods in front of us with her gun raised.
"I, uh, I don't remember," I lied as I looked at the woods too.
"You have been lost in thought since we came here," Sasha added. "Something must be up."
"It's silly," I muttered. "Nothing important."
"It must be," Michonne told me. "If it got you like this."
I sighed in defeat, knowing that Michonne wouldn't let it go, she was like that. If I wasn't ready to share it, though, she would still make sure to get it out of me later, mostly because she knew that bottling things up wasn't healthy for me.
"It's about your engagement?" Sasha guessed and I nodded.
"Kind of," I said. "It just got me thinking about my mum. She never liked the idea of us being together, I just wonder what she would have done about this, would she accept it for my good or make a big deal out of it?"
I looked down at my hands, at my gun, as I tried to imagine what would have happened if my mum were here. I would have definitely told her first and in private, maybe even without Daryl in the room. I would like to think she would at least pretend to be happy for me but I can never be too sure with her.
"I'm sure she wouldn't freak out or anything," Michonne told me in a soft tone.
"It doesn't even matter," I told her as I turned to look at her. "I don't even know if she's still out there."
"Don't say that," Sasha exclaimed, making me turn to look at her. "Your mother is a survivor, she's tough and she knows how to survive, besides, she's not alone."
"Right." I laughed sarcastically at her. "She's got Axel, he makes it all alright."
"Don't be so hard on him, he's nice," Michonne told me.
"Being nice won't save his ass or my mum's," I exclaimed. "If they are still alive, it's my mum who is keeping him alive, not the other way around."
"I guess you are right," Sasha told me. "But at least she's with someone out there, better than being alone."
Sasha and I got really close during these months since she joined our group because of her age and abilities but mostly because of her personality. She is fun, sarcastic sometimes and tough, a lot like me or so Michonne claimed. She's also determined and knows what she wants, she also prefers going on runs than staying behind to cook or do the laundry unlike almost every women in here, making us pretty alike and we had gone on so many runs together, that helped us bonding faster as well.
"I have to go," Michonne announced. "I promised Hershel I was going with him to look for some herbs, he wants to have some just in case."
"Alright," I said with a smile. "Want me to go with you?"
"Nah, we won't go far."
Michonne waved at us before going down the stairs, leaving only Sasha and me, I didn't mind though. It was usually just us two that kept watch.
"You'll see your mum again," Sasha said to me out of nowhere. "I'm sure of it."
"I hope you are right."
Minutes later I watched as Michonne and Hershel got on a car and left after Glenn opened the gate to let them drive through it. Then, Glenn went up the tower to take our place. I smiled at him before walking down the stairs next to Sasha, when we reached the bottom, Maggie waved at us as she walked past us to join Glenn.
I was walking to the prison when I felt strong arms wrapping around my waist from behind and lifting me off the ground, then the person spun me around a few times. I kept laughing even after I was set on the ground again, I turned around and was met by a pair of breath-taking blue eyes and a melting smile. I leant forward and kissed Daryl on the lips.
"God," Sasha muttered, I glanced at her and I saw her rolling her eyes but she had a smirk on her thin lips. "I liked it better when you didn't kiss in public." She turned around and walked away, leaving us alone.
"You have gotten heavier," Daryl said with a teasing smile.
"Oh, shut up!" I exclaimed as I grabbed the collar of his vest and pulled him closer to me before I pressed my lips against his once again, my free hand ran up his chest until it reached the back of his neck and I started playing with his hair.
"Get a room you two!" I turned to look at Oliver, who for once in a long time had a smile on his lips. I rolled my eyes at him and gave him the finger, just like he did to me when I said that same thing when he kissed Teresa all those years ago.
A couple of hours later we gathered around to have lunch, except for Glenn, who went to have a nap, he said he wasn't feeling that well.
"We should go on a run soon," I said to Rick after we ate, we were out in the courtyard with Daryl. "Judith's clothes are getting small."
"The other kids also need clothes and shoes, Carl's are getting tight," Rick told me. "We can organize a run and leave soon. We should see what other things we need and get it organi..."
"Rick! Rick!"
We all turned around and saw Tyreese running out of block A, where the sick used to be isolated. Rick hadn't told him yet about the killer of Karen and David, mostly because he hadn't found the right moment but he always intended on telling him.
Tyreese was all hysteric and told us to follow him inside block A. Tyreese ran inside to an end of a hall very deep into the block cell, Rick, Daryl and I followed him close behind. Once we reached the end of the hall, Tyreese pointed to something really bizarre. It was what it looked like a rabbit, which was dissected.
"Look," Tyreese said, pointing at the animal.
"The hell?" Daryl muttered.
I put my hand over my mouth, I was grossed out by what I was looking. Yeah, we deal with walkers with their guts out and we kill animals to survive and eat but this was mental, this was just sick.
"I was just looking for answers and I found this," Tyreese muttered. "Same person that killed Karen and David did this. Remember the rats at the fence? They showed up the same day she was killed. We got a psychopath living with us."
About two months ago, when people started getting sick, some rats' remaining were found by the fence, where walkers would gather the most. Even after all this time we hadn't found the responsible, but whoever was it, they were crazy. They were the responsible one of the fence giving in, that person put everyone in danger and who would feed walkers? I was away when all of that happened but I was told by everyone, but mostly Carl and Glenn. All of that was completely insane, we needed to find that person.
"Tyreese," Rick said softly.
"We got to find him, Rick!" he exclaimed hysterically. "And I'm not gonna sleep until we do."
"Tyreese whoever did this, I don't think that's who killed Karen," Rick told him.
Obviously it wasn't the same person, my mother wouldn't do something like this and she hadn't been here for the last two months, so, how could she?
"Why?" Tyreese asked.
Rick was about to tell him that the person that killed them was long gone by now and that it was my mother but right then we heard a loud bang and the ground shook as some parts of the ceiling fell to the ground. Daryl grabbed me by my forearm to stabilize me, I was about to fall on my butt.
"Come on!" Daryl exclaimed before he started to run out of there, the three of us followed him quickly.
The only thing that crossed my mind was a bomb, it couldn't be just an earthquake because of the explosion sound but who would bomb us and why? This wasn't making any sense.
As the four of us ran out of the block, we also saw Maggie, Beth, and Carl running out as well but from another block cell.
"Get back!" Rick shouted at them but mostly at Carl but as usual he didn't listen.
We ran all the way to the closest fence, Bob and Sasha were already there. When I stopped running, hiding behind a wall all I could see was about eight cars and one tank right outside the prison ground, in front of the last fence.
"Rick! Come down here!" a male voice called and instantly chills went up and down my body. I could recognize that voice from miles away and anywhere.
The Governor was here.
"We need to talk!" he shouted.
We stared at the man in disbelief, after all these months he was back. I turned to look at Daryl, who didn't look scared, he looked angry, but he was as nervous as everyone. The tank tap opened then and out came two other guys. This didn't look good and at the moment only Daryl had a weapon on him, my crossbow and guns were back in my room, I only had my knife.
"It's not up to me!" Rick shouted at him. "There's a council now. They run this place."
"Is Hershel on the council?" he asked casually.
The Governor nodded at a woman, or I think that was a woman. She walked to a red car, opened the door and seconds later we saw her pulling someone out of the car, it was Hershel, his hands were tied behind his back. We all gasped when we saw the old man but the loudest gasps were from Maggie and Beth.
"What about Michonne?" The Governor asked and that's when my blood turned cold, if it wasn't already. I covered my mouth with my hands, when I saw her being taken out of the car by a man. "She on the council, too?"
The woman and the man made the two of them get down on their knees as they stood next to them with their big guns on their hands, ready to shoot them if we tried anything weird.
"I don't make decisions anymore!" Rick shouted again.
"You're making the decisions today, Rick," he told him in a demanding tone. "Come down here and bring Cici with you, I can see she's alive," he commented.
At the mention of my nickname, Daryl instinctively pulled me behind him. I looked with fear in my eyes at Rick, who had the same look on his face. I understood why he wanted to talk to Rick but why me?
"Unlike what you claimed," The Governor added. "Let's have that talk."
All of us looked at each other with hesitation and anxiety. Rick knew he had to go, Hershel and Michonne were right there with a gun pointed to their heads and compared to them, we didn't have many weapons, maybe we could come to some kind of agreement.
"I'll go," Rick whispered to us but then fixed his gaze on Daryl. "I'll take care of Cecilia."
"No!" Daryl exclaimed as he stepped between Rick and I. "You can't take her out there, he'll kill her!"
"I won't let that happen," Rick said, trying to keep calm despite the situation we had in our hands now. "We have no choice, Daryl."
After some more words Daryl finally decided to agree but reluctantly. Rick nodded and turned to Carl, putting a hand over his shoulder, while I turned Daryl around to face me. I offered him a smile but I was sure it didn't look like a smile.
"Hey," I said, putting a hand on his cheek and caressing his skin with my thumb. "I'll be fine, okay? Don't worry about me."
"He killed all his people months ago, his own people!" Daryl exclaimed, trying really hard to keep his voice down. "He won't think twice about killing you! He always has wanted you and Michonne for escaping and..."
"I love you, okay?" I said quickly, looking right into his blue eyes that now looked two shades darker and his pupils were dilated. I smiled once again before softly pecking his lips.
Seconds later I felt Rick's hand on my shoulder. I nodded knowing it was time for us to go, the less we waited the better. I turned around and walked next to Rick, who still had his hand on my shoulder.
"Wait!" Carl said quickly. The boy ran to me and wrapped his arms around me, he turned me around one hundred eighty degrees so now it was his back the one that was facing the Governor and his people. "You may need this." Then I felt Carl sliding something under the waistband of my jeans, it was a small pistol, he covered the upper part of it with my shirt before he let go of me and nodded at me.
"What if you need it?" I asked him.
"I'll get another one," Carl told me. "Now go."
I nodded at the boy, kissed the top of his head and then followed Rick past the fence. Rick and I slowly made our way through the courtyard, Rick had his hand on his gun the whole time, while I had my arms crossed over my chest, looking at Hershel, Michonne and the Governor the whole time.
"Let them go right now," Rick said as soon as we got only a few foot away from the second fence. The tower I was on to keep watch early today was on fire, meaning that was what they bombed minutes ago. "I'll stay down here. Talk as long as you want. But you let 'em go. You got a tank. You don't need hostages, you don't need Cici here either."
"I do," The Governor said, nodding. He was standing on the tank, looking right at us. His men behind him that were inside the tank were pointing his guns at us. "This is just to show you I'm serious. not to blast a hole in our new home."
I tried not to gasp at what he said, so, this wasn't some kind of revenge, at least not completely. He wanted the prison, our prison. He wanted our home.
"You and your people, you have till sundown to get out of here or they die."
"Doesn't have to go down this way," Rick told him, as he shook his head in disbelief.
It was until then than I looked at the other people. There were mostly men, all heavily armed. But there was a certain redhead guy that got my attention. He was holding a bit gun and he didn't look scared at all, he looked like a soldier ready to battle. When I met him he had never killed a walker, he seemed quite pathetic to be honest and now he was ready to kill people. Chris had survived all these months against all odds, I was so surprised to see him here and not his brother Wayne, he was the one that seemed tough.
"I got more people, more firepower," he said looking all around him. "We need this prison. There it is. It's not about the past," he informed us as he looked right at me like if this whole thing was my fault. "It's about right now."
"There are children here," Rick told him in a very soft tone. "Some of them are sick. They won't survive."
Even when the virus attacked us two months ago, there had been a few relapses and some other people that didn't get sick before, got sick recently but no one else had died because of it.
"I have a tank and I'm letting you walk away from here," The Governor said shrugging as if that was the best deal we could ever be offered, like if he was the most reasonable and nice man here. "What else is there to talk about?"
"And why do you need me here?" I asked him, speaking for the first time, earning everyone's attention. "I'm not even part of the council."
"I just wanted to see you better, to prove that Rick is not a man of his word," he said with a sarcastic laugh. "He said you were dead and yet here you are."
"He did that to protect me!" I exclaimed, raising my voice and allowing my anger and frustration to show. "You were going to kill me and Michonne!"
"That isn't true," he told me, as for once he didn't look at Rick but just at me. "That's all in the past, anyway."
"You killed Merle, Teresa, Andr..."
"We were at war, we all lost people," he said quickly.
"Let her go," Rick told him. "She has nothing to do with this. It's me who you want"
"Not quite true. Cici and I have pending things to discuss," he said.
"Please," Rick pleaded.
"I could shoot you all," he said, ignoring what Rick said. "You'd all shoot back. I know that. But we'll win and you'll be dead. All of you. Doesn't have to be like that, like I said, it's your choice."
Then we heard the typical snarling of walkers. Two were approaching us. The Governor took out his gun and shot at the first, killing him on the first try but he had to use two bullets to kill the second one, then he slowly turned to look at Rick and me.
"Noise will only draw more of them over," he said with a small grin. "The longer you wait, the harder it will be for you to get out of here."
Rick and I turned to look at each other with fear in our eyes. This man was determined to take what it belonged to us and he was willing to kill us all if he needed to do it.
"You got maybe about an hour of sunlight left," he commented, glancing at the sky. "I suggest you start packing. The longer you wait, the harder it's going to be for you to get out of here.
"We can all –" Rick started but his voice broke. "We can all live together. There's enough room for all of us."
"More than enough," The Governor agreed. "But I don't think my family would sleep well knowing that you were under the same roof."
"We'd live in different cell blocks," I told him. I didn't like the idea of him being so close to us but if it meant we get to stay here without any death, then so be it.
"We'd never have to see each other till we're all ready," Rick added.
"It could work. You know it could," Hershel exclaimed, looking back at the Governor.
"It could've," he agreed again. "But it can't. Not after Woodbury, not after Andrea."
I stiffened a bit at the mention of her name. He purposely killed Milton and left him there so he could bite her. And he also killed Merle, even after he was an important person to him.
"Look, I'm not saying it's gonna be easy," Rick told him. "Fact is, it's gonna be a hell of a lot harder than standing here shooting at each other. But I don't think we have a choice."
"We don't, you do," he said with a small grin on his lips.
"We're not leaving," Rick exclaimed with authority, at that the Governor's face changed a bit, he didn't like what he was hearing. "You try and force us, we'll fight back. Like you said, the gunshots will just bring more of them out. They'll take down the fences, without the fences, this place is worthless. Now, we can all live in the prison or none of us can."
Getting even angrier, the Governor jumped out of the tank right after Rick finished his sentence. He approached a man and I thought he was going to grab a gun and shoot us both, making me reach for the gun hid behind me, but I didn't take it out, not yet. But instead of grabbing a gun, he grabbed Michonne's katana. He rushed to Hershel's side and held the sword right on his neck. I was freaking out right now but I remained calm, I couldn't lose my cool right now.
"You!" Rick exclaimed, pointing at someone on the other side of the fences. "You in the ponytails. Is this what you want? Is this what any of you want?"
The girl Rick was talking to was a brunette, young girl, probably around my age, that looked even more terrified than us. She was the only one not holding a gun.
"What we want is what you got," the man in the tank muttered. "Period. Time for you to leave, asshole."
"Chris!" I exclaimed quickly, talking a step forward as I looked at the redhead. "We were friends, you know we are not bad people. We... we took your sister in. She had no one and we rescued her and let her live here. You don't have to do this."
"Is she here? I want to talk to Amanda," Chris demanded.
"She's sick," I lied quickly. "She can't come here now. But we did that for her and we can do the same with you. You just have to stop this."
Chris now looked doubtful. He looked down at his gun as he weighed his options, the others stayed silent too. If I could talk Chris into this maybe that would convince the rest. It was worth a shot.
"Look, I fought him before," Rick informed them after no one talked for a while, deciding that if he couldn't convince the Governor himself, he could possibly convince his people. "And after, we took in his old friends. Including your sister, Chris. They've become leaders in what we have here. Now you put down your weapons, walk through those gates, you're one of us."
I could see how his words softened some of the people there, I saw it in their expressions, including the girl Rick talked to before. But it didn't do anything to the Governor and some of his people.
"We let go of all of it, and nobody dies," Rick continued. "Everyone who's alive right now. Everyone who's made it this far. We've all done the worst kinds of things just to stay alive."
As he said that I got quick flashbacks when I killed those two men in Woodbury all those months ago, and how I went through the woods by myself when I went missing, and also remembered those days I was held captive by Sean.
"But we can still come back," Rick told them, making me snap out of my memories. The Governor looked a bit softened by that, he gulped a few times. "We're not too far gone. We get to come back. I know we all can change."
The Governor looked down at the Katana in his hands with a look of compassion, I think. He held the sword farther from Hershel as he looked at it. For a moment I thought Rick's words had touched his heart, but then he looked up at us and glared at Rick with his only eye left.
"Liar," he muttered.
In a very fast movement, he brought the sword to shoulder length like he was holding a bat and with all his force he made a swing and hit Hershel right in his neck. I had to blink several times because I didn't believe what I was seeing, this couldn't be happening. For a moment it felt like the time froze as we all stared in complete shock at the old man, until he fell down to the floor, blood covering his shirt.
"No!" Rick shouted as he took out his gun and started shooting. He hit the Governor in the shoulder with the first bullet he shot.
I took out the gun Carl had given me and started shooting as well, at the same as I started running back. I managed to hit the girl that took Hershel out of the car in her left thigh and shot a man in his thirties on his chest. I killed that one.
I couldn't keep shooting because everyone was shooting at us, luckily a bus that was lying on its side was close to us. Rick and I ran towards it, we both had almost made it behind the bus to take cover when I heard Rick screaming. I turned quickly and before I could see the damage, I grabbed his arms and pulled him out of their view. Once I did, I notice he had been shot in his thigh.
What felt like eternity, I heard hundreds of gunshots from both sides but most came from the Governor's people, I just hoped that didn't mean that they had killed some of our own. I just hoped that Daryl and Carl were okay, that Judith, Lizzie and Mika were okay, that Michonne was alive.
I was tearing a part of my shirt to tie around Rick's leg when I heard a metallic sound, a different one that sure didn't mean anything good. I finished tying the shirt around Rick's leg and crawl to the edge of the bus to have a better view and saw the tank bringing the first fence down and going to the second one.
"Rick the fence is down!" I exclaimed in despair. "What do we do?"
"We fight!" he said, standing up.
Seconds later we heard more explosions and I really hoped everyone was okay and alive. We saw how people drove inside our prison ground and how the tank advanced forward as it kept shooting, people hid behind it as they shot at my family, screams were heard all over the place making me more jumpy and anxious about just staying there, watching horrified the scene in front of me.
Then we saw the Governor walking right in front of us, he was probably hiding behind the other part of the bus. Rick jumped on him and tackled him to the ground in a matter of a second. Rick was on top of him as he started punching him.
I was about to help him by killing the son of a bitch with my gun when the girl I shot earlier spotted me and ran towards me, she was limping but she was fast enough to tackle me to the ground before I could shoot at her.
I saw the two men standing up and fighting but I couldn't do anything, I had my hands full at the moment. The brunette girl was trying to pin my hands to the grounds but I didn't let her, I kept punching her in the face from my position on the ground, under her. I pushed myself up with the help of my legs and managed to get her off of me. I stood up quickly, looking for the gun but before I could grab it, the girl punched me in the stomach with her rifle, taking my breath away, I crouched over, holding my stomach when she brought her knee up and hit me on my jaw, I fell to the ground a bit disorientated but that didn't stop me, I forced myself to recover quickly, I stood up as fast as I could and swung at her, hitting her on her nose.
She screamed out of fury as she ran to me and punched me right on my face before I could even react. I felt blood running down my face but at the moment I wasn't sure where it came from, the pain in my jaw from where she hit me with her knee made my whole face hurt.
The girl once again tried to punch me but I grabbed her wrist, stopping her. I grabbed her other wrist before she could try anything and we struggled like that for a while until I had to let go, when I did she quickly grabbed me from behind, wrapping an arm around my collarbones. She raised her arm a bit, trying to choke me, I tried to bit her but I couldn't. I was having trouble breathing, so I scratched her and tried to bite her but she didn't let go. I was really running out of air when I raised my leg and brought it back really quickly and kicked her in the knee, immediately she let go of me as she screamed at the top of her lungs. She fell down to the ground, bringing her hands to her knee, I knew I had broken it.
I smirked down at her, grabbed the knife I had and sat on her like she had done to me earlier. Before she could blink or anything else I stabbed her right in the middle of her forehead. I removed the knife quickly and just took a moment to recover, I had never killed a person like this, watching the person into their eyes as life slipped away from them. I had killed before but I didn't stay long enough to see and it was from several feet away, right now I was the closest I could have been as I killed her, this was a new level for me, a limit I never thought I would cross.
I came back to my senses soon enough to see Michonne approaching the Governor from behind, who was trying to choke Rick. I stood up quickly as Michonne deeply thrust her sword right in his stomach. I could see the other end of the sword going out of his body, when Michonne pulled the sword out, which sounded really gross, the Governor fell on top of Rick.
I ran to Rick to check if he was okay, if he was alive. I pushed the Governor off of Rick and knelt next to him, who kept gasping for air. He was so beaten up and he looked really bad.
"Carl? Where's Carl?" Rick asked in between deep breaths.
"I don't know," I told him as I grabbed the gun again. "I'll go look for him."
Before Rick could protest or anything I stood up and ran towards the prison, as I did I realized that only a few gunshots were heard now and the explosions had seized, but two more were heard right after I thought there were no more bombs.
"Carl!" I shouted. "Carl!"
I ran all around the place, trying to find the boy. I just could hope that if he wasn't here that he was on the bus, away from this battlefield. Someone started shooting at me so I just ran faster and tried to avoid the bullets. I turned a corner and took deep breaths as I took a small break and that's when I saw Chris, he had a rifle in his hands and he had blood on his shirt, I felt such rage when I saw that.
"How could you?" I shouted, earning his attention. "That man killed all his people and you still helped him. For all you know he could have killed your brother."
"Don't you dare speak about him!" he yelled at me.
"How could you be part of this when you know your own sister was here?" I lied, knowing Amanda died months ago, but he didn't know that. "Who knows if she is still alive, maybe you killed her."
"Shut up! Shut up!" Chris yelled. I was really shocked he went along with all of this after I told him Amanda was here, I was glad I was now telling him how trash of a human he was.
Then Chris spotted someone, he raised his weapon and even before I could register what I was doing, I raised my own gun and shot him on the head, I wasn't going to let him kill more members of my family. The person Chris was trying to kill was Carl, which just made me feel even more rage.
Carl ran to me, he was holding a big rifle in his hands and had the strap of my crossbow over his shoulders. I smiled as I ran to him as well, wrapping him in a quick tight hug.
"Your dad is right there," I told him, pointing to my right. "I'll go find Daryl."
"You can't leave me!" Carl pleaded. "Please, once I find my dad you can go, please, Cici."
"Okay," I said with a sigh. "Come on!"
I put the gun in my waistband again and took the crossbow quickly from Carl and kept it in my hands instead of the gun. Carl and I started running in the direction I knew Rick was. As we got closer we faintly heard Rick calling for Carl.
We turned a corner and saw three walkers going towards Rick, Carl shot one of the walkers and I took care of the other two. Carl ran to his father and they embraced as I retrieved my two arrows.
"Judith," Rick whispered as he pulled away from the hug, his voice was so hoarse from the chocking earlier, mine wasn't as bad. "Where is she?"
"I don't know," Carl whispered.
Rick hugged Carl once again before we all agreed to walk around the prison to look for Judith and Daryl. I wanted to run and make it all quick but by looking at Carl and Rick I knew I couldn't leave them, Rick was so bad at the moment he could just collapse to the ground and then what would Carl do?
I got on the other side of Rick to help Carl support him as we walked around what we used to call home, but now it was all destroyed. Walls were tumbled down to the ground, there was fire everywhere, there were bodies lying on the ground and there were walkers feeding from some, it was a horrible sight.
We were going right where the tank was left, which was on fire too, when we saw Judith's carrier a few feet away from us. The three of us walk towards it to find it empty and not just that, but it was also bloody, tears filled my eyes, knowing Judith was gone. Rick started sobbing but Carl stayed quiet, staring in disbelief at the carrier.
Then we heard snarling close to us. Carl quickly pulled away from his father grip and shot the walker right in the head, but even after the walker fell down dead to the ground Carl shot it two more times, he tried to shoot it more in a desperate way but he had run out of ammunition. Quickly, Rick made his way towards the broken boy.
"Carl, Carl!" he exclaimed but he didn't react, Carl just kept trying to shoot. Rick embraced him from behind and that's when Carl finally broke down. "We've got to get out of here."
"What about Daryl?" I asked. "You go, I'll look for him quickly, I'll catch up with you."
"There's no one left here," Rick told me. "We've got to go."
I bit my lip trying not to cry because I knew what he said was true but I didn't want to admit it. There was not a living soul in here besides us and the wounded on the ground that were going to get eaten by the walkers around here.
Daryl was not here anymore, neither was Sasha, Mika, Lizzie or Glenn. They were all gone. Maggie, Beth, Oliver, they were all gone if they weren't dead.
"It's over," he told us both as Carl kept crying in his arms. "It's over. It's over."
I didn't nod or say anything to Rick, I knew he was right but I couldn't accept it, at least not yet. I was going to look for Daryl one more time when the wall in front of us started to tremble, as soon as we could we got away from it as it started to fall down. This place was too dangerous to be here so, with the biggest ache of my heart, I wrapped an around around Rick again and together we walked away from our home.
As we made our way out of the prison ground, whenever walkers were closed I let got of Rick and shot the walkers with my crossbow so no sound came out of it to attract even more walkers, I retrieved my arrows before helping Carl with Rick again.
We passed the little river that passed closed to the prison when I felt the need to look back at the prison, maybe I could spot Daryl or someone else. I needed to see.
"Don't look back, none of you," Rick said as if he could read my mind. "Just keep walking."
I bit my lip and with every ounce of willpower I kept going forward and not once I looked back even when I wanted to do it with all my heart even when I knew it would break me. The three of us just kept going and going until we got into the woods.
I couldn't post this Tuesday guys, I have been a bit busy. But it finally happened, the prison attack. What do you think of Cecilia ending up with Carl and Rick? What do you think will happen now that they got separated?