Future Ghosts • TWD

64. Holding On.

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An hour later, Judith was in the back office, asleep, and Rosie was sitting on the floor, watching Gabriel scrub away at the blood stains that were now deeply soaked into the hard wood. It wasn't making any difference, but he kept on scrubbing anyway. Rosie watched as Carl placed a display of weapons in front of Gabriel, but Gabriel paid no mind to any of them. She got up, coming closer to Carl and Gabriel.

"Hey," Rosie said, tapping Gabriel on the shoulder. He didn't respond in any way and Rosie huffed. They were only trying to help him learn to survive, but no, he wanted to scrub the floors for hours on end instead.

"Pick one," Carl said, gesturing down to the weapons. Gabriel didn't even spare them a glance, but at least this time he responded by shaking his head. "You need to learn how to defend yourself. We can teach you," Carl said.

"Hey, mister, he's talkin' to ya," Rosie said, crossing her arms.

Ian came up to stand by her side, also looking down at Gabriel. "I think you're supposed to call him Father," Ian said.

"He ain't my dad," Rosie said, scrunching her face up.

"It means-"

"I don't care," Rosie stopped Ian before he could try and explain. Ian pressed his lips together and stopped talking. "Mister, we're tryin' to help you," Rosie said, tapping the toe of her cowboy boot against his arm.

Finally, Gabriel looked up. He had a sad smile on his face, and he only looked at Carl. "Defend myself? They said they'd go," Gabriel said, shaking his head again. Rosie scoffed. He was mad about them saving his life by killing the people from Terminus?

"They were liars and murderers," Carl retorted, his tone harsh.

"Just like us," Gabriel said. Rosie wanted to kick him, but she restrained herself because Daryl said to be good, and being bad included kicking people.

"We protected ourselves," Ian said, furrowing his eyebrows. Rosie looked over at him for a moment. He had a sad look in his eyes, which was weird because usually he had some sort of happy-go-lucky, I-don't-care type of look in his eyes.

"They wanted us dead," Carl said, nodding his head at Ian's words. Gabriel didn't answer and Rosie rolled her eyes. After a moment of waiting for a response and never getting one, Carl continued. "You're lucky your church has lasted this long. You can't stay in one place anymore. Not for too long."

Rosie thought about the quarry, and then the CDC, and then the farm, and then the prison. All gone, gone, gone, gone. Because nowhere was safe anymore. He was right; you had to be on the move if you wanted to survive.

"And once you're out there, you're gonna find trouble you can't hide from," Carl said. Rosie caught him glancing at her, but she pretended she didn't and looked away. Carl cleared his throat before continuing. "You need to know how to fight," he said. Gabriel stared up at him for a moment before finally, finally choosing a weapon. It just so happened to be a machete. "Good choice," Carl said.

"He's holdin' it wrong," Rosie said, her arms still crossed.

"Yeah, you gotta be able to drive it down," Carl said, acting out the movement, "'cause sometimes their skulls aren't as soft and you need to able-"

"I'm sorry," Gabriel grunted out, holding his hand up to tell Carl to stop. He took a moment, bending over and breathing hard. "No. I need to lie down," he finally said, standing up to leave. And just like that, Gabriel left the room, taking the machete with him.

It was quiet for a few moments after that, until Rosie decided to speak. "Why's he like that?" she asked.

"'Cause he believes in God," Ian answered.