Invincible Ones [A Walking Dead Story]

Chapter 35- Reunion

    The sky is a watercolor painting of purples and oranges and yellows. The sun glares at its dying world before gradually slipping under the trees like the mischievous little brat it is.

   Yeah, have fun up there sun. No dead to eat you there.

  "Em, why are you giving the sun the death-glare?" Aviva raises her eyebrows at me.

  "What?" I turn my head to my left to show my puzzled expression.

  "If you keep staring at the sun you're going to go blind." Aviva says pointedly.

   "The only reason I have perfect vision is because the world ended before I could get addicted to an iPhone." I say. Aviva nods.

  "I'd be a total dork and go through my nerd phase and everything. Plus bad vision with some of those cool bookworm glasses." Aviva muses and I nod in agreement.

  "We all would've had a dork phase." I shield my eyes from the sun, using my hand as a visor.

   "This kid named Gordon is currently going through it." Aviva gossips.

"Oh, so we are gossip girls now, are we?" I say jokingly with a smirk.

  Aviva turns to face me and let's out a mini snort. "Hey, I—"

  "PERSON AT THE GATES!!!" A shout from below shakes us all into our senses. Aviva and I ready our rifles.

  The gun almost slips from my fingers and my stance falters as I peer down from the wall. At the gates of the Library wall is a man with SWAT gear on and black hair. He's extraordinarily pale and slightly sickly looking. I croak out his name, though I wished it louder. I yell his name this time, letting the immense joy of him being here soak into the name.

  Glenn looks up and his surprise matches my own on his face. "Ember?!" He shouts, laughing in relief as he does.

  "Let him in! He's good!" I shout to the gatekeepers. Aviva repeats my command. "He's one of Ember's group members! Bring him in!"

The gatekeepers unlatch the doors and push them open outwards. Glenn speedily stumbles back to stay clear of the doors but still remains smiling. Then I notice a stranger hanging back behind him—a woman. A woman I don't know. She has her chocolate brown hair pulled back into a small ponytail and looks uncomfortable. I can't help but wonder what she is doing and what she is to Glenn. Not that I think Glenn is cheating on Maggie, but I can't help but for some reason feel suspicious of her in some way.

Aviva hugs me from behind. "After all that searching, two of your group finally found you!"

I laugh. "Pretty friggin' awesome!" I agree with utmost elation. Just add in another package of Sour Patch Kids and I'd call this the most best day ever! Unless the sour sugar rubs my tongue raw—my biggest pet peeve aside from be-atches.

I lay down my rifle for the next person who will take post and clamber down the sturdy latter that leads down from the wall, my shoes almost slipping up a few times from the anxiety.

When I reach the ground Glenn is there talking to a tight-lipped smiling guard with the woman adding in thoughts every so often. I bolt over to him and hug him, catching him off guard for a moment before he hugs me back.

"You're alive! Are the others alive too?—oh my gosh, where are they?" I let the words tumble out from my mouth, hoping something I say turns out intelligible.

Glenn's silence causes me to pull away. My friend's solemn turned-down mouth and sad eyes are the all I need to see to I figure out the answer. I try my best to feign happiness—sympathy has never been my strong suit. I had hoped the brown-haired girl was Maggie when I first got a glimpse of her, but this girl's face is more oval-shaped and thin complete with a small "duchess"-similar nose. Guilt twists up her face.

"Hey, that doesn't matter anyway!" I insist. "What matters is that you are absolutely awesome and I missed you and I'm SOOO GLAD you are here!"

"Wow, I didn't know you had the emotional capacity to be this happy." Glenn jokes and I bite my lip to aid my mental restraint. I will not punch him upon reunion!

I scoff. "Pfft, yeah whatever get inside, Glenn! This place is amazing." I assure him and he nods as if he already can tell.

Now where would the rest of my group be?

Not dead, that's for sure. But not right here, right now, at the reunion too...