Reviews:

BabySlothXYaoi- I think Rhys is definitely sick of being manipulated by Carol! Can't lie, I have had so much fun writing for the household of 99, can't wait to get there. Honestly, I had to add Sam in there because when I got to him later I realised he hadn't had any interactions with Rhys... whoops. Eugene is my favourite thing in the world ever... if they had killed him off in the next few seasons I would totally have just written him back to life.


I look up from the pages of war and peace to see Carol, across the street from 99's porch, waving an arm impatiently for me to join her as she calls my name. I shut the book begrudgingly and cross the road.

"Heard about the party tonight?" she asks in a dead tone that I appreciate over her sickly one.

"Uh-huh."

"I'm making cookies. Do you want to help me?"

I think about the fact that I don't want to spend my afternoon with her. Then realise neither do I want to do nothing, so I nod and follow her to Olivia's pantry.


After grabbing a chilled bar of chocolate from the freezer as instructed, I rub out the number eight on the stock blackboard next to the word 'Chocolate,' repacing it with a chalky seven.

"You afraid of guns, ma'am?" I hear a man's voice from inside the armoury room. It's the same man who just told Olivia he's checking up on the east wall before the party. I realise this must be Tobin, the guy Abraham's working for in the construction team, the guy that left Eugene in the dust earlier today.

"No," Carol hesitates, looking at the gun he's carrying like she's scared of it. "Well, I had a handgun, and I carried a rifle when we were on the outside, but I'm not an expert."

I almost snort at her, only realising that she's doing her act a moment before, managing to stop myself, choking on the air I managed to catch in my throat.

"Well, my name's Tobin," he tells her after giving me a strange look for gagging on nothing.

I'm impressed that he's able to bite into her sickly persona without vomiting.

"And whenever you want, I'd be happy to teach you." He loads a bullet into the chamber of his handgun like it's impressive.

Carol gives Tobin a flattering smile, "That'd be nice. Thanks, Tobin."

While Tobin speaks with Olivia, I watch as Carol unlatches the armoury window. She shoots me a look after, which flips from a frown to a smile when Tobin bids her farewell.

Carol and I walk back to 101 to make cookies, and she asks me if I saw what she did.

"Yes."

She goes quiet, not saying anything as we walk through the front door of 101, still not speaking as we enter the kitchen. Only when the ingredients are laid out does she open her mouth.

"Do you want to help?"

"You, Rick, and Daryl are stealing guns from the armoury..."

She nods, not asking how I know about the others.

"When?"

"During the party tonight. I'm sneaking out."

"With Rick? Daryl?"

"No," Carol starts dicing up chocolate. "People will notice if the new sheriff disappears, and they're keeping an eye on Daryl after he stepped into that fight with Aiden and Glenn the other day."

"So you need me to help you get the guns?"

"No. I'm offering."

"Why?"

Carol sighs, putting down the knife and setting the oven's preheat. "Rick said you spoke in the barn- told him that you didn't think coming here was worth the risk. You're right, and this will make it less risky." Carol grabs a cookie cutter from a draw under the island, "You also said everyone sees you as a kid here. Makes it easier for you to sneak away."

I hand Carol a jar of apple sauce when she points at it from across the island. "I'm in."

"You can't tell anyone... Rick might kill us both if Carl finds out."

"You want me to lie to Carl?"

I expect Carol to sugarcoat this. To tell me that it's not lying. To convince me that it's for him. But she doesn't. She simply says, "Yes."


I head to Ron's after the cookies are in the oven. The other four are already there when I arrive, Jesse letting me in. Carl looks relieved when I walk into Ron's bedroom.

We all play video games and chat about the party, Carl, doing most of the talking for me, my mind preoccupied with tonight. I notice how much more comfortable Carl seems around the others. Like he's overtaken me in some invisible race to be normal.

After an hour of feeling braindead, the console is turned off, and we're all sitting on Ron's floor in an uneven circle. Mikey with his back against the foot of the bed, while Enid sits between Ron's legs. Carl and I just sit shoulder to shoulder, our legs crossed.

"Did you hear about the party?" Mikey tries to bring me into the conversation when I haven't spoken for a while.

"Yeah... Carol and I made cookies."

"What kind?" he sits up straight, eyes wide.

"Chocolate chip."

"Flip yeah!" Mikey punches the air.

"Dude, it's fine," Ron rolls his eyes at Mikey, "you can say fuck."

"Hey!" Jesse shouts up from downstairs.

Carl can't help but laugh at Ron as he shouts sorry back, racing to shut the bedroom door I'd left agape.

"How was school?" I ask Carl, my mind still not really engaged.

"It was good," he nods, "weird but good."

"Your Math skills are pretty shitty," Ron chuckles, his chin on Enid's shoulder as she reads a comic. She seems even more uninterested in the conversation than I am.

"Not my fault the world ended when I was a kid," Carl smiles.

"Hey, same goes for us," Ron leans forward, "but we didn't turn out dumb!"

Carl's smiling at him, his face a little red.

I stare at him. "Huh?"

Everyone looks to me except for Enid.

"What?" Ron laughs.

"Nothing," I shrug. "Except he's not dumb."

Mikey looks away awkwardly, and Ron just snickers again, assuming that I'm kidding.

"It's fine, Rhys," Carl smirks, putting his hand on my leg.

"Hey," Ron tells me, "I'm not judging. Carl can be shitty at math if he wants... just hope that it's not contagious."

Carl squeezes my leg, desperate for me to keep quiet. And I can tell Ron's joking. I know he's not bad. But I think of Aiden, how he cornered me the other day, how I let him.

"Some things are more important than maths," I respond, leaning back, propped up with my hands behind me.

Ron chuckles again, "Okay wise guy, like what?"

"Rhys..." Carl tries again.

"Do you know how to filter water? Make a fire? Handle a gun? Kill a walker? Kill a-"

"Rhys!" Carl shouts at me.

Somehow, Ron still doesn't think I'm actually annoyed. He still thinks I'm kidding around like none of it matters.

"You don't need to do any of that in here..." he shakes his head.

Carl's giving me the widest stare possible, begging me to stop in the wake of his quiet, his hand not moving.

"You wait..." I whisper.

"For what," Ron asks.

"For the walls to give. For the water to run out. For the dead to get in. When they're ripping the people you give a shit about apart, maybe you'll stop giving a fuck about maths."

Enid had started watching me at some point. Mikey is just looking at the ceiling, like the fan hanging from it has suddenly become remarkably interesting.

I get up and storm from the room, flustered.


Looking for a place to calm down, I find the gazebo overlooking Alexandria's lake, deciding to pace around inside it. Carl emerges after a few minutes.

"Wow," he chuckles, "that was... something."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap that bad."

Carl sits down on the gazebo bench, shrugging as he does. "I don't know. I kinda liked it. You defendin' my honour."

I snort, "You seemed pretty annoyed in there."

"No," Carl smiles, "otherwise, I wouldn't be here."

I sit down beside him, putting my head on his shoulder. "I've just got a lot on my mind."

"Wanna talk about it."

"Yeah... more than anything."

"Well, you can."

I nod into him.

"Wanna go get ready for the party?" I say instead.

"Okay."


Realising all my stuff is in 99 now, I leave Carl to get dressed after helping him pick something out, landing on his jeans and a grey t-shirt with an orange checked shirt overtop. Maggie is sitting on the couch when I walk in, wearing a simple yet elegant green dress that sings a visual duet with her eyes. She looks up when I close the front door, beaming for some reason.

"You gonna get ready for the party?" she asks, standing up and twirling so that her dress can dance around her in waves of satin fabric.

"You look good," I nod, scratching my nose and looking around the room, seeing Tara sitting on the stairs, also wearing a dress, hers being black instead of green.

"You don't," Maggie snickers.

I look down at my jeans, still dirty from chasing Sasha this morning. I shrug her off, brushing the dust from my t-shirt.

Maggie shakes her head, "Glenn found a cool navy blue button-up and some clean black jeans. He left them on your bed."

"Cool?" I smirk.

"Oh, quit."


Carl knocks at the door of 99, his smile stupidly wide when he sees me all dressed up, bubbles exploding from him and popping up into the evening sky. Tara already left, and Maggie's still waiting for Glenn, so Carl and I walk with Carol and Rick to the party, both of them dressed smartly too. Carol gives me a silver platter with a cloth covering it, the smell of fresh cookies beneath. I have to slap Carl's hand away when he tries to steal one from under it.

Carl knocks on the door of the Monroe residents, Mikey opening, a giant grin on his face.

"Thank God you guys are here!" he gasps. Nodding a polite hello to Rick and Carol as well, letting us all inside. "There have only been adults showing up so far, and they're all super boring," Mikey tells us as he takes the cookies from me and places them on a side table. "No offence Mr Grimes. Mrs Peletier."

Rick presents him with a clean-shaven smile, giving him the all-clear.

"No offence taken, Mikey," Carol shines at him.

I look around the crowded room, the whole of Alexandria somehow seeming to be squished inside.

Deanna spots us, crossing the busy living room with a glass of wine and a wide smile to match her son's, the first time I've noticed them look alike.

"Hello, Carl. Rhys." Deanna gives us sharp nods before she turns to Rick and Carol, "Thank you for coming. I hope Mikey isn't pestering you," she jokes, ruffling his neat hair.

"You told me to man the door," Mikey rolls his eyes at her.

Deanna begins joking about interviewing Judith before she leads us further into her home. As we walk, I'm stopped by a firm grip coming from the crowd, grabbing my collar and pulling me back. I spin around to find Rosita, Abraham beside her.

"I don't know about this..." Abe shakes his head, looking around at all the residents stuffed into the living room.

"They have beer," Rosita shrugs, nodding towards a drinks table.

Abraham nods enthusiastically, "I'm gonna try," disappearing towards the green bottles of booze.

Rosita smiles at me before chasing after him.

I take my time to look around. The living room has been tidied up, no more cluttered books and messy coffee tables. It smells of home-cooked meals, and the sound of chatter seems deafening.

Mikey finds me again, looking very excited about something.

"Those cookies were perfection, dude."

"You've already eaten them?" I ask.

"No," Mikey shakes his head before sporting a fiendish grin. "I have, however, hidden them in a place know only to me."

I hear the front door open again, turning to see Ron enter with his mum and his younger brother, Sam. Mikey heads to greet them with a wave. Wanting to avoid an awkward conversation, I melt into the crowd, looking for Carl but finding Noah, standing to the side by himself, his back pushed against a wall.

"Hey," I greet him, exhaling heavily, already exhausted.

He looks me up and down before saying, "This is terrible..."

"Thank god I'm not the only one that thinks so," I smirk.


The dim light beyond the windows of the Monroe residents fades, replaced by moonlight that reflects off the recently cut lawn.

Despite what I imagined happening tonight, I actually find myself enjoying the party as it goes on. Noah and I are chatting like ordinary friends, telling each other stories about Beth and how different she sounded between the Prison and Grady. Maggie and Glenn show up, making two into four... which eventually becomes seven when we move towards Abraham, Rosita, and Tara. We're all laughing and smiling, talking about normal things, like what we ate the night before and the new people we've met. But we also talk about our normal... the world outside, how far we've come and how far we'll go.

Carol finds me in the group, telling me she needs help grabbing another batch of cookies from 99, dismissing us from the party. In an instant, everything feels distant again, as I'm sucked from the moment of happiness, pulled back into the other world.

Carol leads us across the street to Olivia's house, taking us down the basement steps to the unlatched window, a short sound of paint cracking as she slides it open.

"Mikey seems to like you and Carl," she says, climbing through the open window.

"I guess."

"That's good," Carol nods, waiting for me to finish climbing in after her, "It'll be useful to have someone on the inside."

Once I'm in, Carol pulls a small bag from under her cardigan and hands it to me.

"Four handguns, get them from that footlocker you mentioned. Make em' small. Discrete."

"Four?"

"One for each of us... Me, Rick, Daryl... and you."

"What are you going to do?" I ask, squinting at her, trying to see through the thick layer of lies that she perpetually wears.

"Get some chocolate..." Carol shrugs, "why not?"

I nod, grabbing the bag and heading to the closest where I'd seen the footlocker yesterday. I switch on the closet light and open the locker. I take a snub-nosed revolver with chipped black paint, two 9 millimeters, and my familiar Beretta 70.

"What are you doing?"

I jump. Spinning on my heels and slipping, catching myself on the closet doorframe. Ron's little brother is standing in the armoury beside the open window. He's staring at me, the Beretta behind my back as I slip into the waist of my jeans.

Carol appears from around the corner of the pantry. "Sam, what are you doing here?"

"I followed you," he tells her with a mischievous grin, but then the smile falls. "I was hoping you were going to make more cookies, but then you came here."

"Well, I could make more..." Carol steps forward, beams of moonlight hitting half her face, the other half still shrouded by darkness. "I could make a whole batch just for you... would you like that?"

"Yes," Sam grins, "I mean... Yes, Ma'am."

While Carol talks with Sam, I close the footlocker gently, switching off the closet light before shutting the door.

"You've got to promise me you can keep it a secret that we came here." Carol steps closer to the boy.

Sam looks confused, "But I'd have to tell my mom. I mean, I tell my mom everything."

I step closer to the two of them, moonlight hitting the tips of my shoes, illuminating the red.

Carol shakes her head. "You can never tell anyone... especially your mom."

Sam looks confused at Carol's change in tone.

"Because if you do..." All the sweetness is gone. "One morning, you'll wake up... and you won't be in your bed."

Carol keeps walking towards Sam. He backs up until his back hits the wall, Carol scowling down at him.

"Where will I be?" Sam asks her, seeming so small.

"You'll be outside the walls..."

The act is gone.

"Far, far away..."

The wolf is loose.

"Tied to a tree..."

The woman from the prison is here.

"And you'll scream and scream because you'll be so afraid..."

I can see Karen's face.

"No one will come to help..."

I can hear her crying out.

"No one will hear you..."

The blood in her cell and smoke on her skin.

"The monsters will come..."

Tyreese forgave her.

"You won't be able to run away..."

He wanted me to forgive her.

"And they will tear you apart and eat you up all while you're still alive..."

But they're both gone.

"All while you can still feel it..."

Leaving me.

"Then afterwards, no one will ever know what happened to you..." Carol leers down at him. "Or you can promise not to ever tell anyone what you saw here, and then nothing will happen. And you'll get cookies. Lots of cookies."

Sam is looking up at her, his body shaking as Carol watches. I have to bite my hand when I realise I'm shaking too.

"Now go home, Sam," Carol whispers.

He doesn't waste any time, stumbling as he climbs out the armoury window and races up the steps.

Carol turns to me, fixing her cardigan and tidying her hair.

"Got the guns?"

"I'm done," I mumble.

"What?" Carol looks confused, glancing over her shoulder every so often to check the window.

I shove the bag into her arms, "What the hell was that?"

"We needed to deal with it..." Carol rolls her eyes.

"Is that what you said to Rick after you killed Karen?"

"I..."

"Did she scream?"

"Rhys..."

"Was she scared?"

"Stop."

"Did the monster come for her too?"

Tears are spilling, scattering from eyes to chin as they escape into the night's chilling grasp. Only it's Carol they belong to, not me.

I barge past her, climbing out the window and leaving her alone with her bag of guns.


When I get back to the party, Michonne is on the front porch with Abraham. A tiny plastic sword pinched between her fingers, a cube of cheese on its pointy end. She tells me Carl went home when I ask. Warning me that she saw him drinking.

When I open the door to 99, I find Carl sitting on the sofa, a mug of hot water clutched between his hands.

He looks up, "Hey."

I move across the room and quietly sit on the floor opposite the sofa, the coffee table between us.

"Are you drunk?" I ask, squinting him.

"Not really. I only had one beer..."

From his voice and eyes, I know he's telling the truth, his sobriety shining through, only a small trace of tipsiness on his slow words.

I take the gun I stashed out from behind me and place it on the coffee table's cold surface, pushing it towards him with the scraping sound of metal on glass.

"No more lies," I tell him.

He looks perplexed, squinting at the weapon, "How did you get your gun back?"

"Carol, Daryl, and your Dad are stealing guns from the armoury. Carol offered me one because she thinks that I don't trust this place."

"Do you?" Carl picks up the gun, checking its chamber before putting it back onto the table between us.

"Not entirely. But I think I just realised that I'm not trying to."

"You are," Carl leans back, tucking his right leg under him.

"No, I say that I am. I tell you that I am. But really, I'm just waiting around for everything to go wrong."

Carl smiles at me, his face so forgiving. I tell myself it's just the drink.

I focus very hard on my words, needing to get them right. "I'm going to start going to school with you, then we'll go round Ron's, and I'll apologise so we can hang out with them and be kids."

"You want that?"

"Yeah, I do."

I get up, sitting with him on the sofa, sinking into it as I take his hand.

"I lied today. I went out after Sasha, beyond the walls. I didn't tell you."

"That's not a lie," he tells me.

"Then why does it feel like one?"

Carl's face suddenly falls. "I lied too."

I sit there, looking at him. Waiting.

"Yesterday, I snuck out. Following Enid... I saw her climb the wall."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I don't really know... I feel like we've been different since we got here. More distant."

"We'll change that."

"Yeah?"

I nod into the couch, "yeah."

We sit there for a little while longer, the air between us clear and sobering.

"I'm tired..." Carl groans, sitting up.

"Me too," I stand, planning to head for the door, but Carl grabs my hand tightly.

"Stay here tonight, please?"

I don't say much more, pulling him to stand and walking up the stairs with him, still holding on tight. The window is open, a cool breeze filling the bedroom, the sheets cold when we climb beneath them. Distant sounds from the party as we fall asleep, Carl's arms wrapped around my middle.