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I don't know where we are going as Daryl leads us through the woods with such a determined pace and direction that his movements seem effortless. I don't recognize anything the more we move. Everything looks the same - like a carbon copy of one another. I just see the same trees and leaves sprinkled around us, no matter how far I feel like we've been walking. Has it only been a few minutes since we left Terminus? The thick scent of smoke still lingering on my clothes - a smell that will surely be glued there for quite a while - makes me feel like we haven't moved at all.
At some point, I look over to see the chain link fence just off to our left, finding out that we haven't actually made it as far from the overrun compound as I had envisioned. What are we still doing so close? We need to get away from there. With a herd like that entering the place, there's undoubtedly bound to be problems. With the fires still actively smoldering within the depths of the train yard, we should expect more to be drawn to the area.
"Right here," Daryl finally says, pointing to a tree at our side. He quickly sets me down for a second - in which I'm hardly able to land on my feet - as his hands dig through a patch of crunchy leaves on the forest floor. He uncovers the small spade that we had left there and tosses it to Rick, who begins frantically digging where Daryl instructs him to.
That's when I realize that he's getting our bags. I had nearly forgotten about them amongst all the chaos.
"What the hell are we still around her for?" Abraham asks, his voice booming in the air.
"Guns," Rick replies quickly as he keeps digging, his focus being completely on that small task. "Supplies, too. Go along the fences. Use the rifles and take out the rest of them."
"What?" Glenn asks in as much of a surprised tone as I'm feeling inside.
"They don't get to live," Rick says flatly. Nobody seems to argue that line for a long moment before Glenn speaks up again.
"Rick, we got out. It's over." Rick uncovers half of the duffle bag and is already grabbing his pistol.
"It's not over until they're all dead," he says with a grim tone that causes a chill to run up my spine.
"The hell it isn't! That place is on fire," Rosita disagrees, her voice loud. "It's full of walkers."
"I'm not dicking around with this crap," Abraham complains. "We just made it out."
"The fences are down. They'll run or die," Maggie reasons, looking at Rick. Everyone has such good points that I'm not sure whose side I should take. I want them dead for what they did to us, but we shouldn't risk our own lives trying to be the ones to kill them. It's too reckless. We should be lucky we even made it out ourselves and hope that the universe can do its thing when it comes to their revenge.
I have no idea what they did to Rick and the others after they took them, but I don't particularly want to know, either. Whatever it was, it was bad enough to make Rick worrisome about their survival.
As Rick's trying to think up some reason to persuade everyone into joining his side, a figure from behind us startles me. At first, I don't recognize the person, but then, when Daryl goes waste a second to start sprinting to hug her, I know I had guessed correctly.
Carol hugs Daryl tightly. A smile spreads onto my lips. Today has been yet another shitty day, but some aspects of it aren't that bad.
Right now, I can hardly believe I'm even seeing straight.
The few people that know Carol come forward, just as surprised to see her as I am. Carl and I slowly step towards them as Carol and Daryl part. "Did you do that?" Rick asks her in a low voice, nodding his head towards Terminus. She doesn't even get to respond before Rick knows the answer and is giving her the tightest hug he can.
"You have to come with me," Carol says a sense of urgency in her voice while she begins to start frantically blinking away the tears in her icy, blue eyes. She's grown serious now. I wonder what could be wrong. Nobody asks questions. Daryl picks me back up and the whole lot of us are led out of the woods and onto a road that's fairly close by. She walks quickly and diligently, clearly making sure to follow a path that she has walked before. The entire time, I'm overly curious as to what is awaiting us. Is it Beth? Did she find Beth? There were others, too. Maggie said she found the prison bus completely overrun, but what if there were others like us? What if there were survivors who didn't make it on the bus?
There's a small hill ahead of us before a dilapidated shack comes into view. It's set off to the side of the road and shaded by several tall trees. Everything about it is old, including the front door that squeals open while I eagerly squint my eyes through the sun to see Tyreese standing on the small porch. He's holding something in his arms. I can't quite see what it is until he comes a little closer into the light and all the pieces cling together.
Rick takes off running as soon as he sees Judith. Carl follows close behind. Sasha follows after them, in pursuit of the brother she had believed to have lost. I let out a large sigh of relief to myself while I wait in Daryl's arms, watching eagerly as the two families reunite. Tyreese hands Judith off to Rick, who carefully holds her as if she might slip away from in gracious grasp at any moment. Carl stands right beside him, seemingly not wanting to move while Sasha let's out a cry of happiness as she wraps her arms around her brother's neck.
I guess today can be a good day.
Daryl sets me down and I walk into Carol's embrace, her open arms beckoning for me. I hadn't had a chance to give her a hug, but I will admit that I want to. "Thank you," I whisper in her ear as she holds me close. "You've done so much." Carol moves backwards a little bit to see my face. She holds her hands to my cheeks and swipes her soft thumbs across them while nodding with a small smile.
After showing my gratitude to her, I limp off to see Judith. Rick's still holding her, reluctant to let go. I don't blame him for feeling that way one bit. I gently touch my fingertips to her little, soft hands that have been left untouched by a world of cruelty. She's miraculously clean for the rest of us being so filthy.
"Hey, Jude," I smile. She gives me back a toothless grin. I look to Carl next, giving him a pat on the shoulder. He's the happiest I've seen him in a very long time, so I have no other choice but to feel happy, too.
The smell of death is prominent in the air and our dirty clothing. I'm starting to get used to it, honestly, no matter how pathetic that sounds. Rick hands Judith off to Carl. Michonne comes over to talk to him as Rick walks away. "I don't know if the fire is still burning," he announces. I look up to where he's pointing to.
"It is," Carol declares with confidence in her voice. The black smoke puffs just above the tree line.
"Yeah. We need to go," Rick says with a clap of his hands snapping through the air.
"Yeah, but where?" Daryl asks.
"Somewhere far away from there." We all grab what little belongings we have, and all together, it's not a lot. Carol reaches for my arm, getting a hold on me before I can go anywhere else.
"I was meaning to tell you that I found this on one of the tables inside of Terminus," Carol says. She reaches into her pack and pulls out my knife - the one that had once belonged to my father. "I knew it was yours. I knew you'd want to have it." Tears nearly form in my eyes at the thought that, while everything was going on, Carol had thought of bringing me my knife back. She knows how important it is to me.
"Thank you," I say, nearly speechless. Although all seems good, I can tell that there's something else bothering her.
"There's something you should know," she sighs. I don't know what that could possibly be, but my mind starts searching for possibilities. After I slip my knife back in it's spot on my hip, she reaches for my hands and grips them tightly. "I found Lizzie and Mika."
"Where are they?" I blurt out, raising my eyebrows in surprise. I look behind me at the rotting cabin, waiting for them to come outside. The only thing Carol does is squeeze my hands tighter, causing my attention to land back on her.
"No, Emmie. I found them. Tyreese got them out safely with Judith, but there was an accident. They're not with us anymore." I look into her eyes, trying to understand exactly what she just told me.
"An accident?" I ask in a low voice.
"They didn't make it," she replies, pursing her lips. It hits me in the chest. I wasn't as close to the two as you might have thought I was, but they were all I really had in the means of friends. Just like that, they're gone and I never even got to say goodbye. "I'll tell you more later." She just nods and turns away before I can say anything more. I watch for a minute as she leaves before I look around and join Carl and Judith.
"She found your knife?" he asks, obviously having watched the whole thing. I nod happily. I decide I'll tell Carl about Lizzie and Mika later. Now isn't a good time, especially with all the happiness we've managed to muster up at the moment.
"She found your sister, too," I laugh. I tickle Judith's foot which makes her giggle slightly.
"We're gonna be okay."
"We are." I smile. "We are."
Glenn takes us off the road and onto the tracks. This time, we aren't walking in the direction of Terminus. We're walking as far away from that hell hole as we can. I lean on Carl a little as we walk, but try not to be dependent on him since he has the important task of holding Judith.
Rick distributed the gun collection so everyone is protected. I was willing to carry one in my pack, but I wasn't ready to hold the same weapon that was pointed at my head the previous day. It seems like too much for me to deal with right now. Instead, I keep my hand on the smooth handle of my knife. It'll be enough for right now.
"How's your leg?" Carl asks randomly. I wish he'd stop worrying about me so much. It makes me want to sever this whole friend deal. I don't like being worried about because it makes me feel weak - like I can't take care of myself. It makes me feel like I can't worry about my own well-being, but I can.
"The stitches popped," I say nonchalantly. "I'll be fine, though."
"The stitches popped?" he asks as if he can hardly believe it. I nod, almost proudly, because in the grand scheme of today's events, it's not that important.
"Yep. When we were running for our lives earlier, I hadn't really thought about it." I say the whole thing sarcastically. "I'll worry about it later. It's just not a priority right now." He doesn't seem to argue with me, which is promising. I'm tired and hungry. Above all that, I'm thirsty. Our water supplies are limited. I had a little left in a plastic bottle in my bag, but we have to divide the rest of our rations among the masses. I guess that's one negative to having so many people in our group. It gives me unsettling reminders of our winter before the prison, when supplies were constantly limited and having to be split amongst the masses of our group.
After about an hour of walking, we finally connect to a highway. Rick allows us to take a break, which I think everyone needs. We all take a small ration and seat ourselves on a log or rock to finish what little food we have. Carl and I split a can of tuna fish. It's not bad, but it's not appetizing, either. "Here," Rick says as he walks over to us, holding a bottle in his hand. "Why don't you feed Judith." Carl reaches out and takes the bottle. The minute Judith's eyes land on it, she's excited. I let out a little laugh at her excitement, despite the only contents being water. She gets a few peaches, too.
As some of the group finishes their meal, a few go out to look for water. It's a source that we always need, but can never find enough of. Michonne comes over and joins me and Carl on our fallen log. "How's the leg?" she asks, nodding towards my injury. I shake my head. "Let me help," she whispers gently. She takes the medical supplies from my pack and cleans the wound before wrapping it in the last bandage we have. The pain is excruciating as all of this is done. The popped stitches have left the skin searing. I dig my hand into a clump of moss beside me to stop myself from screaming out.
"Get something to eat. We'll start back at sunup," I hear Rick say to Tara. I silently celebrate in my head. I don't think I could've gone much farther. I'm more than exhausted at this point. I'm in pain. I'd rather give it another try tomorrow and hope I'd get a little farther than burn myself out now.
"She really was thirsty," Carl laughs. I look over to him and Judith, almost forgetting they were there. I let out a scoff as I land my eyes on Judith, whose hands are wrapped tightly around the bottle as she drinks away.
"I think we all are," I say. Seeing a fresh face is like a light in the dark. It's also nice to see a smile on Carl's face. Back in the house on Clove Street, I didn't ever think I'd see one on his face again. Somehow, everything went right and Judith is alive. It's funny how things like that have been happening lately.
"I can't believe she's here," he says in a low voice, suddenly getting serious. I look him in the eyes as I reply.
"Sometimes, the universe has a weird way of changing people, you know? Like, sometimes, it takes people away from us and never gives them back. Other times, they give people to us that we never knew we needed. Oddly enough, they can do both. Sometimes, they take people they gave us away to remind us how much we needed them all along." I hadn't meant to pour my mind out on Carl, but when I come up for air, I see him smiling. That's because he understands. "I know that's a lot, but-"
"But, I get it." I press a grin onto my lips, glad he knows what I mean, before standing up from the log. I'm about to ask Carl something else, but Rick comes back over to tell us something.
"Emmie, can you hold Judith for a minute? I need to show Carl something."
"Sure," I reply. Carl hands her over to me. She's still fairly occupied with her bottle.
"I'll be right back," he says before standing up and following his father away from me. While I'm sitting alone, Rosita comes walking over and leans herself up against a tree beside me as she sips some soup from a rusted can.
"¿Hablas español?" I ask. I knew I had heard her speaking it earlier. I had nearly forgotten that I could, from the teachings of my mother.
Rosita smirks before responding with, "Sí. ¿Y tú?" I nod.
"Sí. Mi mamá era profesora de español." She nods, understanding my situation now.
"¿Dónde está tu mamá?" The word forms a pit in my stomach. This is the first time that I've even spoken Spanish since she's died. I hadn't expected my first conversation to be about her.
"Ella está muerta," I respond flatly before dipping my head.
"Lo siento," Rosita says sincerely. I shake my head.
"No tienes que ser." We finish speaking and I turn my full attention back to rocking Judith until Carl returns.
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A/N: A short chapter, but hopefully a good one! ;)