My Life is Over - TWD Fanfic

lost innocence

word count : 3559

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"There's something outside!"

Michonne's hiss, no matter how low it had been, was heard throughout the church, and Sasha was the first to run to the doors. Everyone followed quickly, not sure if it was for or friend. An ambush or a blessing.

When I first spotted the horrific sight, I was sure it was the first. Even if by some small chance Bob being back was a blessing, it wasn't. Not when his leg was missing. Not when we knew they were coming for us.

When I saw the bloodied stump as they carried in the wailing and delirious man, I visibly recoiled. Sasha was crying, people were arming themselves, and everyone was high strung. I could feel my heart began to pump faster and faster-what was going to happen? Were they coming for me because I killed that man, if they were from Terminus?

Carl had murmured horrific stories of the place they had been chained, readied like cows for slaughter. He'd told me a few nights ago how they would kill you, cook you up, and eat you. I could only imagine the atrocities they must have done to Bob. If his leg was missing, then... Well, I didn't want to think about it. 

They were settling Bob down, and offering him medication, but he kept shooing everyone away, revealing a gnarly bite. Glenn, who had never been close to the man, kept himself between me and the time bomb Bob now was, and I was content to shy behind him. I couldn't face the truth-that I was going to watch someone succumb to the same disease coursing through all of our bloods that reanimated my brother. That made him, too, a murderer. A hungerer of the flesh. A starving, reanimated corpse that was nothing like the boy I once loved. 

If I were a braver girl, I'd tell Sasha all these things. That soon, Bob wouldn't be Bob anymore, and to enjoy her moments with him, instead of being angry.

Angry like I had been, once Patrick was dead. I would give anything to be back right there by him again, at Woodbury, before we became so distant at the prison. Before both of our different personalities began to bloom and separate us-the outcast from the nerd.

No matter how different we were, Patrick and I were made from the same cloth, and I knew what it was like to lose my other half. If I were brave, I would have told Sasha all of this. 

To dwell on the good times. To not blame and anguish.

But then again, I hadn't ever been brave, had I?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Glenn made me leave the room as they got Bob comfortable; it was much too crowded inside that one room, and he didn't want me anywhere near Bob in case he, well, in case he croaked.

I was sent off to 'play with Carl,' though nobody thought we would truly be able to do that in a time like this. Tyreese was clutching Judith to him, rocking her back and forth as he seemed to be far off, distant in even his own mind.

"Carl, when will people stop dying?"

I had been curled up next to Carl as we sat against the wall in one of the corners in the church. My head on his shoulder raised as he shrugged his shoulders, before sighing.

"People are always gonna die, Leighton. That's just how life is. Even in the Before, we couldn't stop death. We sure as hell can't stop it now."

"Language."

I mumbled, and he tugged on my hair with his free arm.

"Hypocrite. I heard you cussing out that rock you tripped and scraped your knee on when we were walking."