RULE THE WORLD | D.DIXON

094

"The princess likes to pull on my hair." The King chuckled. "A strong grip the little one was."

Matilda smiled as she made eye contact with her husband. "That's she is."

***

Matilda gripped the rope tightly with Saddiq as they were trying to get the wagon down the stairs. The problem was in order to get it out of the building, they had to move it across the glass floor.

Anxiety flooded her as she watched  her father walked along the edges of the floor so he doesn't step on the glass. The glass creaked underneath him and the wagon as they moved it across the floor.

Once they got the wagon over, Maggie and Cyndie were next as they brought over of the first piece of the blacksmith equipment before Rick and Daryl got the canoe.

"No sudden moves. Just keep going nice and slow." Her father said as he and her husband brought over the canoe.

The King and Carol picked up the second piece of the blacksmith equipment as they brought it over, the floor began to creak even more. The couple seemed to panic a little, moving faster than they were supposed to.

"You got to go!" Rick shouted, as the floor underneath the King shattered.

Matilda and some of the group rushed to grab the rope, stopping the King were soaring down into the middle of the group of walkers. Using as much strength as she could, she gripped the rope tightly that her knuckles turned white.

Carol throw down a cushion before leaning over the side on glass as Daryl shoot one of the walkers. Matilda and her group pulled the rope making The King climb up with the help of the redneck.

The dark haired woman let go of the rope with a sigh in relief that the King was okay before helping her group get the equipment out of the damn museum. When they were out of the building and ready to leave, Matilda hopped onto her horse—who she named Satellite—followed her people.

When they hit route B, Matilda was taking up the rear a little behind Carol and the King. She watched with a smile as the King pulled out a ring, asking the woman to marry him.

Like always, Carol refused. Tilly was happy that the older woman was happy and had someone to love.

Matilda got off of Satellite when Daryl and Rosita had stopped them by the broken bridge.

"Two others herds merged into 'Silvia' so now it's even bigger. One of them came through here, and the back end took down the bridge. Took the walkie repeater with it." Rosita explained.

"What about Route A?" Daryl asked. "Is that clear yet?"

"It's still too close to the herd."

"We can get to Alexandria from this side, stay there till it passes." Michonne suggested.

Maggie shook her head. "No. Route A had taken days clear before. I need to get home to Hershel."

"We could take Route D. It's early enough in the day." Carol pipped in.

"Keep an eye on the trade road in case anyone else tries to move through. Gabriel, y'all can head back to Alexandria from here. The rest of us—we can go to the Sanctuary or Hilltop, stay the night, and head off from there." Rick spoke as Matilda hopped back onto her horse.

As they moved further down the road, everyone came to a stop in front of a large mud pile, which made the horses unable to pull the wagon through it.

"Rick, the horses can't pull the wagon through this mud." Michonne told her father.

"Maggie, I think they need a break." Ken said, trying to calm his horse.

Everyone grabbed a part of the rope that Rick had tied to the wagon, and started to pull. The growling of walkers made the group alert as the King motioned them to keep pulling.

"We're almost there."

"One more time." Rick said. "One, two, three."

Matilda pulled the rope as hard as she could with her group as the King pushed the wagon from behind. The wagon became unstuck as the walkers came closer.

"Good. Let's get out of here." Rick said  as he went to help the king pick up the blacksmith equipment. "Daryl, Michonne."

Michonne and Daryl went to deal with the walkers, Matilda helped her father and The King with the canoe and blacksmith equipment, loading it onto the wagon.

She quickly moved out of the way when one part of the blacksmith equipment fell out of the wagon as the wagon moved. Her father grabbed her arm, pulling away as the walkers got too close.

"We gotta go! Leave the wagon!" Her father said as Marco, Michonne, and Daryl followed Ken and the pair.

The horse that was still attached to the wagon whined loudly as the walkers stumbled near it, which caused Ken to hurry towards it.

"I gotta free her!" The teen shouted, pulling out his knife and ran towards the horse.

"Ken! Wait!" Rick yelled.

The boy started cropping away to the reins as a Walker came up behind him and bit into his shoulder and the horse kicked him in the chest.

Matilda, Saddiq, and Maggie immediately took off towards the boy with Marco stabbing the Walker and kicking it away, while the rest of the group tried to keep the walkers away. Enid did what Saddiq told her to do, getting the medic supplies and helping him and Matilda.

"Tell my dad to let Marco take my place, okay?" Ken said, his voice stained.

"Hey, you're gonna talk to your dad yourself, okay?" Saddiq countered. "Just stay awake. Stay awake."

"Ken, Ken, just stay awake. Ken, look at me. Ken." Maggie said, her hand smoothing his hair.

"Tell my mom and dad, I'm—I'm comin'." Ken said before taking his finally breathe.

Matilda and Enid stopped what they were doing and felt their heart sink. The woman wasn't close to the boy, but Maggie seemed to be, who was crying.

Maggie looked towards the others, before taking out her knife and stabbed it into Ken's head.