FEAR ⇾ THE WALKING DEAD

lxvii. | richmond, virginia

"I know she would." Ella told her. She wrapped an arm around Maggie, pulling her in close. "I know she would." she repeated, mostly to herself as she thought of Beth Greene's face again, the smiling face she last saw before they were torn away from each other in that small walker herd, and because of those people at the hospital.

Maggie exhaled deeply, shaking her head. "The only thing is. . . it just seems too easy to be able to do that, Ella. I would love to. It's everything I want to do. But its hard knowing they should have been there with us. Everyone who's gone. . . everyone. . . my dad, Lori, T-Dog, Dale, Bob, Otis, Patricia, Jimmy, your mom, even Shane," she laughed, her vocals ringing. "It's all a shame."

Ella didn't answer. She looked at the tree in front of them. She didn't know what to even say to that other than she agreed because it in fact incredibly hard to be able to do that, hanging onto to only their memory since they didn't have anything else of their deceased loved ones. It really sucked. If only there wasn't walkers, wasn't a virus floating in the air, and if the people hadn't gone bad. It all would be so much simpler and many people could still be alive and thriving for the good of humanity. But there was no more humanity in the cruel world.

When Ella goes to sleep in the world, sometimes she wishes she would never wake up and let someone who died be resurrected from the dead. That wasn't how it worked though.

Tyreese was the one who came up to them to tell them they were leaving for Richmond. It wasn't Glenn for he was prepping the van, it wasn't Brandon for he was talking to Harley about the hospital, it was Tyreese for he was worried about them and they should get ready to go. "Hey, ladies, we're gonna be heading out," he watched them unwrapped from each other with the tears fresh on their faces. "Are y'all okay?" he knew the answer to that question already.

Maggie looked at him. "We're going to be just fine. How are you?"

"The same. I'm more worried about you two though." he nodded.

They nodded as well, before they stood up and dusted the leaves off their buttocks. They headed toward the fan without saying another word.

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ELLA DECIDED TO go to Richmond to check it out only because she needed to take her mind off of what happened to Beth. She wanted to forget for a little bit and cry it all out later when they were safe and sound behind the walls of the small town. She wouldn't have left if Maggie told her that she needed her to stay  with her and not go off, but Maggie was the one who told her to just go and check out their new home for her and for Beth. At least, Brandon stayed behind to console her and keep his eyes on her. She probably needed him more than she needed Ella. He was much better with his words, he was a good person to talk to when everything was falling apart in front of them.

They ditched the van a while back and walked to Richmond. When they saw the walls, they shook the locked metal gate to listen for walkers. Noah kept shaking and shaking until he heard noises. He looked at everyone. "You hear that?" he asked. Ella grimaced. It was the screams of the undead informing them they were there to wait to be killed or to kill them. Whichever one it was. Maybe after all, this place was no home.

Glenn sheathed his knife. "Just wait." he climbed the wall adjacent to the gate to look over it. Glenn was looking a bit disappointed when his eyes landed on the inside of the town. Noah panicked and climbed on the other wall in a hurry to look over it. He ended up jumping the wall to get inside for he was in denial this place wasn't it. Ella wasn't fazed at all. She wasn't expecting to be relieved. She was mostly expecting to be disappointed in the end. Everyone else jumped the wall after Noah.