when i look at you | TWD

chapter ten. glad you're okay, walsh

The man scoffs and shakes his head, walking away from the group and back to the house.

Rick walks up to Jax, placing his hand on his shoulder, squeezing tightly. "You alright?"

Jax pushes his hand off his shoulder and nods, wiping the blood from his nose. "I'm alright."

The first thing she was aware of was her breathing. Her breathing was so steady, yet so shaky at the same time. The second thing was the immense pain in her lower abdomen. She groans, and at first, nothing came out and she got a little scared. El groans again, her eyes fluttering open as she turns her head to the side, blurry vision making out a figure standing in the room.

"Hey, take it easy." She heard a voice say, it sounding almost muffled as the figure walks towards her. Ellie was starting to sit up, until the person pushed her back down. She looked at their face, seeing it was a woman with blonde hair and a soft smile on her lips. Ellie scooted back away from her in fear that she would do something. "Who are you? What is this place?"

"It's a farm. Do you remember anything that happened in the past couple days?" The woman asked her.

"Um-" Ellie paused, trying to gather her thoughts. She gasped and widened her eyes, tears starting to form in them. "I was shot."

The woman gave her a nod and then sighed, getting up from her spot. "My name is Patricia."

"Are you the one who helped me?" Ellie asked sceptically,  furrowing her eyebrows at the stranger.

"That would be Hershel. He's currently out at the moment." Patricia told her, giving the girl a short glance before backing away from her spot, looking out the door anxiously.

Ellie narrows her eyes before sighing deeply, looking around the room. "Where's my dad?" She breaths out, holding herself tighter. "O-or Rick?" The teenager was anxious in this home with strangers, she just wanted her dad.

"They're outside..." Patricia says anxiously, looking out the window with wide eyes before she backs away by Ellie's bed.

As if on cue, Glenn walks in, breathing heavily with Jax walking in after him.

"Hey, guys..." El trails off, chuckling lightly as they both quickly made their way towards her, Jax grabbing her hand as Glenn is beside him, eyes wide and alarmed.

Once Jax gets closer, El notices the slight bruise on the right side of his face and gasps, reaching out to touch it. "What the fuck happened to your face?!"

"I-it's nothing. Just a disagreement." Jax chuckled humorlessly and sat down next to her, the girl instantly gripping onto his hand tightly. "Glad you're okay, Walsh." He smiled.

She then looks to Glenn and gives him a small, grateful smile before squeezing his hand tightly. They have a short conversation with their eyes, asking if the other was okay.

Ellie nods quickly and Glenn does slowly, glancing out the window momentarily.

"What's goin' on?" She asks, moving in her spot slowly.

"El, there's somethin'-"

He couldn't finish his sentence because there was yelling coming from outside, Ellie glancing out the window before throwing the sheets over her legs, wincing in pain. Jax sighed deeply before he realized she wasn't gonna stay in her spot, so he helped her out, her smiling in thanks.

They make it outside rather quickly, El gasping at the group standing around the barn and her father, yelling at them.

"You ain't gotta feel nothing for them cause all they do is kill!" She heard her fathers voice say and she tensed at his tone, only hearing him yell at her like that a couple of times.

"What the hell?" Ellie breathed out as she got closer, seeing Rick and Hershel holding onto walkers with what looked like snare pole.

"Hey, Hershel, let me ask you somethin'," Shane paused, grabbing out his gun from it's holster. "could a living breathing person, could they walk away from this?" As the gunshots went off, Eleanor flinched, the memory of her getting shot coming back to her. She started to shake and Jax held onto her, pulling her small body closer to his.

"That's three rounds in the chest. Someone who's alive, could they just take that? Why is it still coming?!" Shane fired more shots into the walkers chest, it still coming back for more. Eleanor watched as the humanity seemed to disappear from his eyes. She was scared. What was he doing? Was he trying to get them kicked out?

"Shane, enough!" Rick yelled, angry with how he was acting.

"Yeah, you're right, man. That is enough." With that, he killed the walker and Hershel fell onto his knees, his eyes wide in disbelief.

"Enough risking our lives for a little girl that's gone! Enough living next to a barn full of things that are trying to kill us! Enough!" Shane expressed, Jax now pushing her behind him as he gripped onto his knife in his waistband. "Rick, it ain't like it was before."

Shane looked around at everyone, not knowing his daughter was there, watching his outburst. "Now if y'all wanna live, if you want to survive, you got to fight for it! I'm talkin' about fighting! Right here... Right now!" He walked towards the barn, prying it open with an axe as everyone held up their guns, ready to fight.

Eleanor watched in shock, breathing heavily. Her father has officially lost it. He was too far gone. The gunshots died down, her inching away from everyone slowly. Moments passed before she saw a small body walk out from the barn, tears filling her eyes as she saw who it was.

Sophia.

Everyone looked to the ground, Carol crying out in agony as she watched her daughter walk out, Daryl quickly pulling her away from going towards her. Rick walked up, holding up his gun to her head before he fired, her falling to the ground. Permanently dead.