HEART OF GLASS¹ ━━ the walking dead ✓

[ 046 ] better off dead

Impatiently, Rick pointed his rifle at her encroaching figure, "Are you alone?"

Walkers were beginning to swarm around Andrea, despite the walker attached to the snare pole masking her humanly scent. Her fear was palpable, and her face twisted in disbelief, "Rick!"

He gave a reluctant sigh and threw the keys to the gate to Daryl, "Open it."

The youngest Dixon brother complied, jamming the keys in the lock and ━ with help from Merle, who was now allowed free reign of the prison grounds ━ shimmied it open. Andrea ducked out of the way of a walker's groping arms and slipped through the gap, leaving the snared-dead one outside. Daryl slammed the gate behind her, and almost immediately, Rick seized Andrea's arm and shoved her harshly against the fence.

His cop-ness was really shining through now. Andrea was a criminal in his eyes; he was treating her like one. It made Theo's heart thud painfully in his chest. He didn't want to see Andrea get hurt.

A walker slammed into the fence where Andrea had been pressed against, so Rick moved her to the ground. She kneeled on the asphalt, holding her hands up in the air ━ looking severely disoriented and confused. Rick patted her down, removing anything that could compromise their safety. A knife clattered to the ground. Then her backpack. It was clear he didn't trust her; not enough to let her carry personal items. Theo and Michonne received the same treatment when they first arrived at the prison.

"I asked if you were alone," Rick hissed in her face.

"I am," Andrea said, huffing exasperatedly.

He clenched his jaw and turned to Daryl, passing him Andrea's backpack. The Dixon brothers searched it simultaneously.

Wanting to glimpse the woman better, Theo slowly trudged out from behind a car. She looked healthier. Less slim. She had colour in her cheeks, and her clothes were clean, and she didn't have that melancholic, glazed look in her eyes anymore. Those same sea-blue eyes snagged on him as fast as lighting ━ almost like some kind of motherly instinct, drawing her gaze to him. She pressed her mouth into a tight line, guilt overwhelming her confused expression. Theo swallowed thickly and looked away.

Rick returned to the scene, clasping his arm around Andrea's shoulder, "Welcome back," he said coldly, "Get up."

✧.｡. *.

In the cafeteria, a reunion was underway.

Andrea rushed into Carol's arms and embraced her warmly. Then, much to Marley's blatant chagrin, Sage ran forward and flung herself at the blonde. A huff of laughter left Andrea's lips, and she ruffled Sage's hair, pulling her into a tight hug. Her sea-blues eyes landed on the cracked watch strapped around Sage's wrist, and her lip wobbled with sorrow. But she managed to fight back the tears. Perhaps the Governor had shown her how to toughen up ━ how to pretend.

Her glassy eyes not-so-subtly shifted to Hershel. She gasped at the sight of his missing leg, "Hershel . . . My God."

He didn't say a word.

Andrea didn't seem to notice. She whirled on the heel of her shoe, gazing around the prison's cafeteria and all of it's inhabitants in awe, "I can't believe this."