The Rest of your Life

Chapter 32

"Someone locked him in just in time." Hershel observed.

"No, man." Daryl denied. "Charlie used to sleepwalk. Locked himself in. Hell, he was just eating barbecue yesterday. How can somebody die in a day just from a cold?"

"I had a sick pig. It died quick." Rick revealed.

"Violet?" Rory asked quietly, getting a hesitant nod in response. The girl frowned slightly.

"Saw a sick boar in the woods."

"Pigs and birds. That's how these things spread in the past." Hershel said as the doctor stood up. "We need to do something about those hogs."

"Maybe we got lucky. Maybe these two cases are it." The doctor said, voice full of empty hope.

"Haven't seen anybody be lucky in a long time." Bob commented, crossing his arms. "Bugs like to run through close quarters. Doesn't get any closer than this."

"All of us in here, we've all been exposed."

•••

Rory was helping Daryl dig the graves, both had bandannas across their faces as they dug. Amongst the silence, Rory paused as a random grim thought flashed in her mind, Daryl stopping too.

"What?" Daryl questioned.

"It's nothing." Rory dismissed with a wave of her hand. She frowned at herself before continuing her digging. She didn't want to bring it up to Daryl that she never got to bury her father. She shivered a little as she imagined his body being torn apart by the dead. The girl flinched as a pile of mud landed infront of her.

"You back with me?" Daryl questioned, concern obvious in his voice. The girl only hummed back at the man in confirmation. Rory looked up from the hole she was in as Rick approached.

"Glad you were in there." Daryl told the man.

"Wasn't much use without my gun." Rick denied.

"No, you were." Daryl reassured. "All this time you've been taking off, you earned it." Rick walked to Rory, extending his hand and helping her climb out of the grave. She brushed off her pants and pulled down her bandanna, handing Rick her shovel as she flexed her hands. "We wouldn't be here without you."

"It was all of us."

"No, it was you first." Rory spoke up.

"You gonna help us figure this out?" Daryl asked.

"I screwed up too many times." Rick breathed out. "Those calls you got to make, I start down that road... I almost lost my boy, who he was... whatever else this place needs, I'm here for it."

"Like I said, you earned it." Daryl insisted. Rory tilting her head as she watched Maggie at the fence. "But for what it's worth, you see mistakes, I see when the shit hits, you're standing there with a shovel."

Daryl then climbed out of the grave he dug and begun to say something else, yet he was cut off by Maggie yelling for help. Rory was the first to run, sprinting over to the fence. They made it in record time, Rory helping Maggie to stab a few walkers through the gaps in the fence.

"The noise drew 'em out and now this parts starting to give." Maggie explained through a panic as the fence started to bend inwards. Rory ran over to the other part of the gate, helping Glenn. A few others had come to help too.

Rory fell on her ass, groaning again as she lost her footing and tripped backwards, only to recoil in disgust. "Rick, theres rats!" Rick came over and helped the girl up, looking at the rats on the floor. "Is somebody feeding these things?"

"Heads up." Daryl called as the fence begun to give. Rory stayed backwards as they all began to press against it, she would be no help. They eventually got it standing upright again but it was clearly going to happen again.

"Fence keeps bending in like that, those walkers are coming over it." Sasha stressed from beside Glenn. Rory looked to Rick, who looked towards the pig pen. She grimaced in realisation.

"Daryl, get the truck."

•••

Rory had overheard Carol talking about Lizzie and Mika, how their dad had died to the walkers in D block, and that Lizzie was only upset about a walker being killed. Rory remembered Carl telling her about the girl naming walkers. Apparently she hadn't learnt that they were monsters.

Rory approached the two sisters at the fence, stopping just behind them. She wasn't aware of Carol listening from a small distance away.

"Lizzie, those are walkers." Rory spoke up, Mika looking at the girl and smiled a little. Rory just looked at Lizzie. "Nick was a walker. You don't feel sad about it dying, you feel sad that your dad is dead." Rory spoke bluntly. "You loved him and now he's gone."

"Yeah." Lizzie spoke, slowly looking to Rory. "But he was special."

Rory groaned, slapping her head. "It was a walker. It's dead."

"He was special." Lizzie repeated.

"You don't get it? They're not people, they're not pets. They kill. Do you understand?" Rory scolded the girl. "Your dad is dead. Show some empathy."

•••

Rory felt bad that she wasn't aloud to go near Carl. She knew her friend would be upset about the death of Patric, and there was nothing she could do to help him mourn. Instead, she was sitting in the field next to a freshly empty grave. The girl had spent the rest of her day digging and filling an empty grave for her father. She still missed him.

•••
I don't like this chapter... I forgot I hadnt edited it and almost published it half finished :(

AnEWAYS

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