Reflections - TWD

33. To the survivors.

"What kept you from it?" Rick asked Gabriel.

"It's overrun." Gabriel replied, that same nervous tone in his voice.

"How many?" Rick's tone came out firm and demanding.

"A dozen or so. Maybe more." Gabriel shook his head.

"Pussy." Isabella scoffed.

"Some people are just scared, Bells." Carl looked over at her, making her roll her eyes.

"We can handle a dozen." Rick told Gabriel.

"Hell yeah. We can." Isabella said, sitting up and getting ready.

"Woah, no. You're staying here." Rick told her.

"Why?" Isabella furrowed her eyebrows.

"Because I said so. That's why." Rick replied coldly.

"That's not a reason." Isabella mumbled under her breath, luckily, nobody heard her.

"Bob and I will go with you." Sasha said to the groups leader as she stood next to her boyfriend. "Tyreese should stay here, help keep Judith safe."

Tyreese smiled and Rick turned to him. "That'll be okay?"

Tyreese nodded. "Sure. You ever need me to watch her, need anything for her, I'm right here."

"I'm grateful for it." Rick nodded to the man and made his way over to him. "And everything else."

"I'll draw you a map." Gabriel declared.

"You don't need to. You're coming with us." Rick responded instantly.

Gabriel smiled nervously once again. "I'm not gonna be of any help. You saw me. I'm no good around those things."

"Well, get used to 'em. They're not going away until Eugene does his fire with fire crap or whatever." Isabella said as she fiddled with her fingernails.

Rick nodded. "You're coming with us." He repeated to Gabriel.

Rick, Sasha, Bob and Gabriel all left the church, going to find supplies from this one area that Gabriel told them all about.

Isabella still couldn't get her head around it. The way that Daryl had hugged her and then ripped her heart out, it was too confusing.

Daryl, Theo and Carol had gone out to find water. Tara, Maggie and Glenn had also gone to find some supplies, they were gonna meet up with the other group.

Isabella headed over to where Carl was sitting with Judith. "How'd you get out of the prison?"

"With my dad...we found a house, then Michonne found us. Then some bad guys found us, and that's how Daryl got back to us again." Carl explained.

"Why was Daryl with bad guys?" Isabella asked quietly.

"He didn't know they were bad." Carl said simply. "How'd you get out?" He asked her.

"Theo helped me. Then Abraham, Rosita and Eugene found us...then we found Glenn and Tara." Isabella explained to him.

"Did Daryl say anything? About not wanting to be my dad anymore?" She asked him, putting her hand on Judith's head and stroking it softly.

"No. I don't know what happened, I'm sorry." Carl said, and Isabella wanted to cry again. Nobody knew why Daryl didn't want her anymore, he just didn't.

"It's okay. It's not your fault." Isabella said, giving him a weak smile.

The others all returned, food, water and other supplies in hand.

"Hit the jackpot." Sasha smiled.

Later on, they had candles as a source of light and they had put food out on the table, everyone was laughing and chatting, but not Isabella. She sat in the corner, not mingling with the group whatsoever.

"I'd like to propose a toast." Abraham's voice boomed. "I look around this room...and I see survivors. Each and every one of you has earned that title." He raised his glass. "To the survivors."

"Survivors! Cheers!" Everyone shouted, but not Isabella.

"Is that all you wanna be? Wake up in the morning, fight the undead pricks, forage for food, go to sleep at night with two eyes open, rinse and repeat? 'Cause you can do that. I mean, you got the strength. You got the skill. Thing is, for you people, for what you can do, that's just surrender. Now we get Eugene to Washington and he will make the dead die and the living will have this world again. And that is not a bad takeaway for a little road trip." Abraham rambled.

Judith cooed softly and leaned against Rick.

Abraham turned to Eugene. "Eugene, what's in DC?"

Eugene cleared his throat while Isabella just moved the food around on her plate, not eating any of it. "Infrastructure constructed to withstand pandemics even of this fubar magnitude. That means food, fuel, refuge. Restart."

"However this plays out, however long it takes for the reset button to kick in, you can be safe there. Safer than you've been since this whole thing started. Come with us. Save the world for that little one. Save it for yourselves. Save it for the people out there...who don't got nothing left to do except survive." Abraham said more softly this time.

Rick chuckled and Judith cooed. "What was that? I think she knows what I'm about to say. She's in. If she's in, I'm in. We're in."

Everyone agreed generally, and then it fell silent while everyone ate. Isabella caught Daryl looking at her so she stood up and stormed over to in front of where he was sitting. "What's your problem?" She yelled, making everyone's eyes go to her.

"Bells..." Daryl tried, but she cut him off.

"No. My family calls me that, you don't get to do that because you don't wanna be my family anymore." Isabella said breathlessly, tears rolling down her face. Abraham reached forward, trying to grab her upper arm and pull her back, but she shoved him off.

"I wanna go home. But I don't have a home and all of you have someone who cares about you, I've got nothing. Nothing." She choked out. "I wanted to find you...I wanted you to hug me and tell me that I was gonna be okay, but you didn't because you've decided not to like me all of a sudden." Isabella paused and looked up to the ceiling while she let out a sob.

"I can't breathe." She cried, looking around at everyone who were all absolutely speechless. She covered her mouth as she let out a sob and walked over to one of the private rooms, slamming the door behind her, but her sobs could still be heard by the entire group. Her attempts to get air into her lungs but it just came out as wheezing.

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