like real people do | c.g [#wattys2019]

S E P A R A T E D

AFTER ABOUT AN HOUR OR SO, my head is on Carl's shoulder and I'm almost asleep when Rick notices Daryl, Carol, Sasha, and Bob's absence. Tyreese goes with him to find them and the three of them come back after ten minutes, Sasha going straight for Father Gabriel. "Stop. What are you doing? What are you doing? Because it's all connected. You show up, we're being watched, and now three of us are gone."

That's enough to get me to wake up. I sit up as Gabriel stutters. "I-I don't... I don't have anything to do with this." He backs away when Sasha pulls out a knife. Everyone is suddenly on their feet, me included as she moves towards the scared man. He tries to defend himself but she doesn't let him.

"Where are our people? WHERE ARE OUR PEOPLE?!" She yells in his face. Rick gently pulls her back as the man keeps muttering about how he doesn't have anything to do with this.

A tense silence falls around us as Rick looks the priest up and down before asking. "Why'd you bring us here?" Instead of answering, Gabriel stutters again, making me roll my eyes. "You working with someone?" Rick asks again, inching closer to him.

"I'm alone! I'm alone... I was always alon-" Rick cuts him off.

"The woman at the food bank, Gabriel. What did you do to her? 'You'll burn for this', that was for you. Why?" Rick asks him calmly and I watch as the man turns pale. "What're you gonna burn for, Gabriel? What?! What did you do?!" He yells, pressing the man again the pews.

Gabriel takes a few shaky breaths before confessing. "I locked the doors at night. I always lock the doors at night, always lock the doors." He mutters. "They started coming, the congregation. They were scared, they were looking for a safe place, a place where they felt safe. And it was so early and the doors were still locked. You see, it was my choice. There were so many of them and they were trying to pry in on the the shutters and banging on the sides, screaming at me. And so, the dead came for them... Women, children, entire families calling my name, begging me for mercy, begging me for mercy... Damning me to hell. I buried it all. The lord sent you here to finally punish me. I'm damned, I was damned before. I always lock the doors." Tears are streaming down his face, but I don't pity him. He said he never killed anyone. He lied.

Rick's about to say something, when we hear faint whistling coming from outside, making Glenn walk up to the window. "There's something- There's someone outside lying on the grass."

Sasha is the first one out the church, ignoring everyone's pleas for her to stop. She screams out Bob's name as walkers start coming from the woods. I start stabbing them, but not before I notice half of Bob's leg is now missing, a bloodied bandage covering his wound. They drag him inside as Rick starts shooting, yelling for us to get inside.

Bob starts to wake up once we're inside the church, groggily trying to explain. "I was in the graveyard, they drugged me out. I woke up in this place, it looked like a school... It was that guy, Gareth, and five other ones. They were eating my leg right in front of me, like it was nothing. All proud like they had it all figured out."