— CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
blooming relationships and swimmers.
EVERYONE HAS TURNED IN their weapons except Dale. . . and Odessa. Dale is the assigned lookout and Odessa still hasn't told anyone about her stolen gun.
Everyone is getting together the organized search party for Sophia but Odessa isn't allowed to help. So she lays beside Carl who is awake. "Does it hurt?" He asks her.
"My head?" She asks back, "yeah, it comes and goes. Like I'll get a quick headache that'll go way in ten minutes or I'll get a migraine that'll last eight hours."
Carl grimaces. "That must suck."
"Yeah," she laughs, "at least I didn't have to have surgery done on me."
Carl mocks her before rolling his eyes. "They haven't found Sophia yet, have they? Dad told me y'all did."
Odessa sucks in a shaky breath, "no, bud, they haven't. Not yet."
"I wanna help," he tells her. "We both should be looking for her, she's our friend."
"You aren't allowed to do anything with that wound and I'm not allowed to do anything either. Hershel's too scared I'm gonna take another blow to the head and like die." Odessa sighs to herself. "Hey, if I told you I had a gun, would you snitch?"
"No," Carl shakes his head quickly. "Do you have a gun?"
Odessa's lips quirk. "I've had it since the camp got attacked."
"Awesome," Carl exclaims giddily. "Can you shoot it though?"
"Yeah, Shane trained me from the time I was seven to the time I was fourteen," she explains. "You don't remember?"
"Des?" A voice calls. Both siblings immediately go quiet and their eyes snap to the doorway where T-Dog appears. "Hey, little man. You doin' better?"
"Yeah," Carl nods. "Thanks."
"What is it?" Odessa sits up. "Is somethin' wrong?"
"Just come with me." T-Dog states.
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Odessa stares down at the bloated walker in the well. Dale shines his flashlight down on it, "looks like we got us a swimmer."
"Gross," Odessa manages to say. "How long you guys think it's been down there?"
"Long enough to grow gills," Andrea responds.
"We can't leave it in there. God knows what it's doing to the water," Lori speaks up.
"We gotta get it out," Shane states the very clear obvious.
"Easy. Put a bullet in its head," T-Doh suggests.
"It'd be the easiest, cleanest way," Odessa looks up from the walker. "I'll get a rope."
"Woah, woah, guys. No." Maggie steps up.
"Why not? It's a good plan," Glenn tells her.
"It's a stupid plan. If that thing hasn't contaminated the water yet, blowing its brains out will finish the job." Andrea quickly agrees with Maggie.
"Dude, you just said it's been in there long enough to grow gills. If it's been in there that long, then the water is already contained to all hell." Odessa looks at Andrea like she' dumb. She's beginning to think she is.
"No, she's right. Can't risk it," Shane says.
Odessa throws her arms up while T-Dog asks, "so it has to come out alive?"
"So to speak," Shane mods.
"How do we do that?" Glenn asks as they all look down the well at the well walker.
"Meat?" Odessa suggests.
The meat does not work. So now Odessa's watching anxiously as Glenn is lowered into the well. "This is so stupid. So so so stupid." Odessa whispers to herself.
Maggie, who stands beside her, nods in agreement. As both women watch over the well, Maggie instructs, "a little lower. A little more."
A second later, the pump the rope is tied around snaps. Immediately, Glenn starts screaming and both Maggie and Odessa are on the rope.
T-Dog is braced against the well with the pump in his grip. All seven of them are on the ground, desperately trying to pull Glenn up.
"Get me outta here! Guys, get me outta here!" Glenn is screaming from in the well. Odessa blinks heavily before realizing she has blood dripping down her face. She blinks away the red as Glenn's head pokes up over the top of the well.
"Are you okay?" Odessa is beside him in a heartbeat, grabbing his face. "Are you bit?"
He shakes his head while Dale speaks up, "well, back to the drawing board."
Glenn looks up and to Dale, "says you." He stands, handing the rope to Dale. A tug pulls at the rope and everyone except Glenn, Odessa, and T-Dog rushes to the edge of the well where low and behold, the rope is around the walker's neck.
T-Dog looks over at the teenage girl who is on her knees, "don't pull those stitches, Odessa."
She reaches up and touches her forehead. She pulls her hand back to see the blood coating them, "guess it's kinda late for that, huh?"
"How the hell did you manage to pull 'em?" T-Dog questions her.
"I think someone might have kicked me in the head," she explains.
"You better go get Hershel to restitch it," T-Dog tells her.
"Yeah," she nods. "I should probably do that."
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Odessa sits at the kitchen table with Hershel stitching her head again. Every time the needle pierces her skin she hisses. "Ow," she mumbles.
"How'd this happen again?" He asks her.
"Maggie tell you about the walker in the well?" Hershel nods at her question. "Well, when the pump broke someone kicked me in the head."
Hershel nods again.
"There was a grave at a church nearby, Josiah Ackler," Odessa starts. "Did you know him?"
Hershel hums, " unfortunately. He and his kids lived on a farm nearby with his parents. Josiah died back in 2008 from an accidental drug overdose. He was an abusive man to his children. There were three. The oldest was Corraine, she went mostly by Cori, she had two younger brother— Silas and Flynn."
"Josiah sounds like an awful person," Odessa huffs. "You know his grave has the word abusive wrote on in three different handwritings. I guess it's his children's."
"It is. They've been doin' that since his passing." Hershel tells her.
She nods before Hershel continues. "Cori was your's and Beth's age. Silas was around Carl's age and little Flynn was four. That's how old they all were when it started."
"Do you think they're still alive?" She asks.
"I haven't seen their corpses anywhere so I hope so." Hershel tells her before saying, "all done."
"Thank you," she smiles. Hershel taps her leg in response and Odessa goes on her way.
A few minutes later Odessa is sat on the railing of the porch, her back pressed against the wood beam. Beth walks onto the porch and eyeballs the girl.
"Glenn said they bombed Atlanta," Beth starts.
"Yeah, they did," Odessa nods. "That's an odd way to start a conversation."
Both girls laugh at that. "Yeah, I guess it is," Beth agreed. "Was it scary? Your time on the road?"
Odessa nods without a moment's thought. "Scariest thing I've ever experienced in my life. I had a couple close calls with some walkers."
"That's horrible," Beth shakes her head. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."
"I'm sorry about your mom and brother," Odessa says. "That must've awful."
"It was," Beth nods, clearing her throat.
"We almost got blown up at the CDC too," Odessa states.
"Really?" Beth sits down in the rocking chair and brings her knees to her chest. "Now I bet that was scary."
"It was," Odessa says quietly, "we made it out with like two minutes to spare. Dale and Andrea almost stayed behind."
"Why?" Beth's brows furrow.
"Andrea lost her sister three days before. She was bit," Odessa tells her. "It was hard, losing so many people in just a couple days. Amy, Jim, Jacqui."
"I'm sorry," Beth frowns. "This new world. . . it's not easy."
"No, no it isn't." Odessa shakes her head. Her brown hair falls in her face causing her to brush it back with a huff of annoyance.
Suddenly, Beth speaks words that catch Odessa completely off guard. "You're really pretty, do you know that?"
Odessa's eyes shoot to her as blood rushes to her face. "Really?" She asks. "You think so? Even with these nasty stitches?"
"Of course," Beth replies.
Odessa smiles to herself and looks at her hands. Beth smiles to herself and continues to admire Odessa.
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word count: 1,391
episode: cherokee rose
AHHHHHH!!!!!! omg beth and odessa already make me so happy and they're not even together yet. they're literally gonna be the cutest couple.
but odessa finally got to tell someone she stole the gun and of course it was her baby brother. i mean, who else would she tell?? this also kinda urges carl to steal the gun from dale's rv in later chapters.
so we learned about josiah ackler and his three children. is this the last we hear about them or will they come up in later books?? the world may never know 😏.
t-dog and odessa 🤝 the only remotely sane ones in the group. they're such a funny duo. the "don't pull those stitches, odessa." after the stitches are very clearly pulled and blood is pouring down her face 😭. i love them.
odessa and glenn are precious too. she was so worried about him during the well scene. they're my favorite nonrelated sibling duo in this book. also guys please don't ship odessa and glenn!! they're best friends and are like brother and sister. also odessa's still sixteen, glenn is in his early twenties!!