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CHAPTER TWENTY,
to lose a friend.
━━━━
It was moments like this that Nicole wished she could shield Cheyanne and Carl from every possible bad thing out there. She hated that they had to experience a war before they would even be in high school - if the world hadn’t ended, that is. Cheyanne was only 10, and Carl at the ripe age of 13, and they had seen so much violence and horror than she could have ever mentioned. She hated that they couldn’t just be kids - the same kids that she knew before the shit hit the fan.
Nicole swung her rifle across her shoulder as they entered the cell block. She stayed close to her brother, who was watching Nadia as she put her rifle onto the ground. The blonde nudged her brother, giving him a suggestive expression. He rolled his eyes while he shook his head before redirecting his gaze to Beth as she wandered through the cellblock with Judith in her arms. Nicole allowed a slight smile to cross her face when she saw that the baby - and the rest of the kids - was safe.
Cheyanne made her way over to her mother with a blank stare on her face. Nicole’s smile dropped as she crouched down to her daughter's height. She could feel her ankle wobble as she did so. “Chey, honey, what happened?”
Cheyanne nervously glanced over to Carl and Rick. Nicole followed her gaze as she carefully took her daughter’s hands into her own. “Carl, he-” the little girl muttered before choking on the anxious tears that built in her throat. “He killed someone - a boy a couple of years older than us.” Cheyanne ducked her head down to her feet. “He was trying to give us his gun, and Carl shot him.” Nicole sighed softly before embracing her daughter. Cheyanne buried her face into the crook of her mother’s neck while Nicole’s eyes met Daryl’s across the room.
The redneck gave her a worried stare as he began biting at his nail. Nicole shook her head softly, trying to reassure him that everything was fine. Nicole gently stroked Cheyanne’s messy hair in an attempt to get her to calm down. Cheyanne had seen someone die before - Amy, Dale, Patricia - but she’d never seen someone murdered right in front of her. When she was with Michonne and Andrea, it was very rare that they came across people, and if they did, they hid. It wasn’t until the Governor found them did she start seeing so much human-on-human violence. Seeing the life just pop away from a single bullet to the head scared her to death. She never wanted to kill someone - it was the scariest thing she could imagine doing because murder looked like someone blew a candle out in the person’s eyes.
Nicole carefully picked up Cheyanne, cradling the young girl as she moved toward the cellblock. Daryl and Nolan followed after her, but Nolan went into his own cell while Daryl tailed her up to the second floor. Nicole entered Cheyanne’s cell before gently placing her onto the ground. She still looked traumatized. Cheyanne turned around and climbed onto her bed; Nicole joined her, making sure to wrap a securing arm around her. Daryl stood at the door, watching the pair with loving eyes.
