Future Ghosts • TWD

72. I Don't Know, I Don't Know, I Don't Know.

"Remind us what we're up against," Aiden added, a small smirk on his face. Rosie thought that this was very stupid. They shouldn't have needed something to remind them what they were up against. The only reminder they needed was the absence of all the people who were taken by the dead. They walked through a few more trees, and that's when Rosie saw it: a chain strung up on a tree branch, but with no walker on it. "Son of a bitch! Help me find it," Aiden cursed.

"Look at this shit," Nicholas muttered, taking his gun off of his shoulder. "Blood's still wet. It's nearby." While Aiden and Nicholas investigated the tree that they strung their walker up one, Tara, Noah, and Glenn were tasked with looking around for the walker. Rosie thought that if they wanted to find it, they ought to look below the chain, find its tracks, and follow them. But she kept those thoughts to herself, because finding the walker would be stupid, anyway.

Out of nowhere, Nicholas whistled loudly- almost as loud as Daryl's whistle. All four of them- Tara, Noah, Glenn, and Rosie- turned to him and shushed him harshly. "Hey, hey, hey! It's gone," Glenn whisper shouted at him.

"It took down one of our friends. It's nearby, we're not letting it go," Aiden argued, pulling the chain down from the tree. Rosie squeezed Glenn's hand, and he looked down at her. She pointed over behind a tree. She found the walker. But before Glenn could call out in warning, the walker was already right behind Aiden. Nicholas started yelling and shouting at it, making it come after him as Aiden tried to wrap the chain around its wrists.

If it didn't work last time, it's not gonna work this time, Rosie thought to herself. This encounter only proved that the people from Alexandria were stupid, weak, and just didn't understand.

Noah raised his gun, pointing it at the walker, but Nicholas held out his hand. "No, don't touch it!" he shouted.

"The rest of you, back off!" Aiden shouted, grabbing onto the walker's arms while it was distracted with Nicholas. Rosie tensed, watching as Aiden failed to keep his grip on the walker. The skin was breaking.

"Glenn," Rosie said, her voice tense and worried.

"I know," Glenn said, pulling his knife out of its sheath.

Suddenly, the walker turned around, going after Aiden instead Nicholas. Aiden didn't even try to fight it- he just immediately pushed the walker back towards Tara, without warning. As Tara pushed the walker's snapping jaws away from her face, Aiden kept shouting for her to hold onto it! It was stupid, though, because if Tara held onto it, it would bite her and she would die. Glenn knew this, and Rosie knew it, too. So when Glenn let go of Rosie's hand to go and kill the walker, Rosie didn't run, even though she really, really wanted to. She knew that if she ran, it'd only be putting the rest of the group in danger, because they'd come running after her. She'd get beat if it meant that the rest of the group was safe.

"What the hell?!" Aiden shouted once Glenn plunged his knife into the walker's skull.

"Yeah, what the hell?!" Tara retorted, her tone laced with annoyance and hatred as she gestured down to the now dead walker that Aiden had just thrown onto her.

"You almost got her killed!" Glenn yelled at him.

"I told you all to stay back!" Aiden yelled back. Rosie decided that she really, really hated him- even more than she really, really didn't want to go back to Alexandria. "I told you to listen to every damn thing I said! I told you that."

Glenn got up close to Aiden, his jaw clenched and his breathing heavy. For a moment, Rosie thought that maybe he was going to punch Aiden, but he didn't. Rosie wished that he would've. Instead of punching Aiden, Glenn backed off, grabbed onto Rosie's hand again, and they all started walking back towards Alexandria with a thick silence looming over them.