✓ | SPITFIRE ¹ ✶ the walking dead

⠀⠀⠀𝒙𝒙. the prison

⠀⠀⠀It'd take twenty minutes if it was a good day. However, some days, there was much more to handle, especially if the exhaustion from the last one hadn't passed.

⠀⠀⠀The one they'd come across most recently was made for a good day. The house was big with an upstairs, but it seemed only the previous homeowners were left inside. Easy to take down since there were so few of them. Daryl also came across an owl, shot dead and plucking its feathers to eat.

⠀⠀⠀When Rick was confident the house was clear, he whistled the others inside who carried their bedding and clothing. With the door still open, Bianca took the opportunity to drag out the dead walker from the hallway and dragged it down the steps. Carl had shot one too further inside the house, but thankfully it was behind closed doors. This one reeked already, and she was tired of smelling walker corpses.

⠀⠀⠀Rick stayed at the door, waiting for Bianca to finish lugging the walker down the stairs. Each time its head hit against a step, blood-streaked down, and a loud thud made her flinch slightly. Finally, with it far enough away and distraction enough if any stragglers were trying to get to the front door, she stood back up, dusting her hands on her pants, and went back inside. Rick nodded at her as she passed then closed the door behind her.

⠀⠀⠀The past few months had been tiresome and draining for all of them. They had all stayed together, grown with one another. They truly considered each other a family after all they'd gone through. Bianca could remember that night when half this group sat together around the dinner table with Jenner at the CDC. They drank wine, laughed together, told stories, and looked like people not just surviving together for the first time. Bianca could see them becoming her family even with the freshness of her real family's death. She had seen this, where they had come from, and how close they'd gotten.

⠀⠀⠀However, just because Bianca saw them as family did not mean their moods were as high and lifted as the night drunk on wine. They were weary with the destruction of the farm, their friend's death, and the question of whether Andrea made it out alive. Other factors were filtering between those worries, and Bianca hadn't been able to dispose of hers.

⠀⠀⠀Bianca felt she was a shell of her past self as she looked around at her people and remembered what she used to be like. Whenever she caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror or still water, she looked pale despite being in the sun for days on end. Her hair would begin to mat if they went days without a river to wash. And her eyes... she hardly recognized the hollow gaze, black and dead as they stared back at her.

⠀⠀⠀After Sophia's death, Bianca felt all of her hope vanish. What kept her moving, believing that Cal was still out there, alive, seemed to go down the drain. She had put so much of herself into him, and yet the likelihood of him surviving months and months and months were gone. Or, if Cal was like her, he might be with another group, long gone or just out of reach.

⠀⠀⠀They had all noticed how unlike Bianca was as the months dragged on, but how could they question her change of state when they were all the same. They had all lost a little bit of hope the day the farm was destroyed.

⠀⠀⠀Bianca didn't talk as much, focused on fixing the cars when they broke down or going on runs with Glenn or Maggie, and somehow, her anger lessened. She no longer had angry outbursts, possibly due to the fact Shane was no longer around to antagonize her, and only did it seem to spark when fighting walkers.

⠀⠀⠀Bianca was brought out of her reverie as a stale piece of bread was held in front of her. She stared at it and only took it when Glenn shook his hand to bring back her attention. She accepted the food, her stomach grumbling, and she bit into the bread with a crunch.

⠀⠀⠀Carl walked into the living room. His eyebrows furrowed with focus as he was intently set on whatever task he had given himself. He sat down in the circle, putting his gun beside him, and rummaged through his bag. Finally, he pulled out a can of food in front of him.