CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
"Virginia"
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17 days have passed since Beth's death. Maggie and Noah are still coping with Beth's unexpected demise. After leaving the hospital, Rick, Jane, Glenn, Daryl, Tyreese and Sasha go for a supply run. They end up finding a van, clearing it out, and takes it for transportation to Virginia.
When the night comes, Jane and Glenn cuddle up together by the fire staring up at the night sky. "Are you okay?" Glenn asks as he gently pushes Jane's hair out of her face. "Usually when you ask me that I'm fine but right now I'm not. Beth— she was so close to getting out... she was so young" Jane whispers before she looks over at Glenn. "I know.. I know" Glenn reassures as he places a kiss on top of Jane's forehead. "I love you" Jane confesses and Glenn looks at her as he pulls away from the kiss and a smile forms on his face. "I love you too" Glenn admits before Jane places her lips onto his and they share a passionate kiss that last for a few more seconds before they decided to stop and enjoy the night sky.
"It was secure" Rick informs as he gathers the group together to talk about a potential new place for them. "It has a wall, homes, 20 people. Beth wanted to go with him and get him there. It's a long trip, but if it works out. It's the last long trip we have to make" Rick says looking around at everyone who quietly agrees with him but is still sort of skeptical of this new place.
"And what if it isn't around anymore?" Glenn asks as he wraps his arm around Jane and looks down. "Then we keep going" Rick answers and Glenn meets his eyes. "Then we find a new place" Michonne adds and Jane looks over at her and smiles at the determination and hope Michonne has.
Rick, Jane, Michonne, Glenn, Tyreese, and Noah are on the way to where Noah's place was mentioned, having made their way through South Carolina, North Carolina and much of Virginia. "Hey Carol" Rick radios as Tyreese drives the car to the destination. "I'm here" Carol informs. "We're halfway there. Just wanted to check the range" Rick radios back as he looks ahead of him at the street waiting for Carol to reply. "Everybody's holding tight. We've made it 500 miles. Maybe this can be the easy part" Carol says making everyone form a slight smile on their face at her comment. The two contain to radio until Rick gives them a time limit when to check in and Carol says to Rick that if they don't get back, the rest will come looking.
"We have two more miles" Noah informs and Rick sits up in his seat. "Let's pull into the woods. We'll go on foot and stay off the road" Rick states just in case things could go south so they park about two miles from the town. Since Jane and Glenn were in the back, Glenn got out first to grab Jane's hand and help her out of the van before shutting the door behind them and pull his gun out of his holster. "This is good" Rick informs as everyone moves closer to each other. "Through the trees, it might just look like part of the wreck" Rick states referring to the van parked in the woods by other broke down cars, blending in very well.
Suddenly, a walker is heard in one of the cars and everyone turns their head towards the noise but no one is brave enough to go kill it. "It's this way" Noah states and everyone follows him the opposite direction of the walker trapped in the vehicle and travel through the woods together. They approach with caution, Rick fears snipers but Noah reassures him, "We built a perch on a truck. Sometimes it's out front" Noah informs and Jane walks over to Glenn and peaks over at the gate and there's no perch on a truck. "Not today" Glenn states and the group continues walking together.
When the gate comes into view, Noah rushes toward it and tries to open it, but it is locked. They hear some noises from within and Glenn climbs the wall to peer inside, only to see the town destroyed; he remains silent. Noah panics and hops the wall to see the destruction. Shortly after, everyone climbs the gate and sees the destruction for themselves such as burnt houses, burnt corpses and more everywhere around the home.
Noah breaks down in tears as Rick and the others follow after him then Tyreese comforts him, "Come on. It's all right" Tyreese whispers while Noah breaks down in the middle of the street. "You're gonna be with us now" Tyreese informs and Jane looks at the two of them and can't help but feel bad for Noah. He thought he was going to find his family but came back and his home was destroyed and his family no where to be found. Jane looks over at Michonne at the other side of the street and they both let out sighs of disbelief knowing this means they'll have to get back onto the road again while Rick intervenes and tells Noah that he is truly sorry about what happened.
"We should see if there's anything we can use and head back" Rick states and Jane looks around at the place. "Then what do we do?" Jane asks as she turns around to face Rick who stays silent at her question. "We can make a quick sweep. Grab what we can and what we need" Glenn adds agreeing with Rick and Tyreese volunteers to stay with Noah then Rick radios Carol and informs her that the place is gone.
Rick, Michonne, Jane and Glenn head off to see what they can find. While Rick and Glenn stay outside and check the garage Jane and Michonne go inside the house very quietly and slowly just incase there were any walkers and surprisingly there wasn't any but they could've been the burned up corpses out in the yards somewhere. Jane wanders off and checks the cabinets for any food and finds a few can goods still good to eat and slips them into a book bag she found.
"I found a few clothes and some food" Michonne says as she walks in the kitchen placing the items on the counter. Jane walks over and places the items in the book bag and looks at Michonne who looks around the kitchen with slight admiration. "You're upset. About what happened here. You want to get off the road and settle down" Jane mentions as she zips up the back pack and looks to Michonne who slowly turns to her.
"I'm getting to used of being out here. I want to settle down and there has to be a place like that around here.. somewhere" Michonne replies and Jane nods her head in agreement. "Trust me. I am too" Jane mumbles as the two of the send eachother nods before heading out the door that leads to the garage meeting up with Glenn and Rick who sit up against the cars parked in the driveway.
"I don't know if I thought this place would still be here but Beth wanted to get him here. She wanted to get him back home. This was for her" Rick says while Glenn, Jane and Michonne listen. "And it could have been for us too" Rick adds and Jane sighs as she looks around the garage spotting a few blankets and grabs them placing them in the book bag as best as she can.
"I was thinking about that guy in the storage container. Back at Terminus" Glenn begins and Jane turns her body and looks at Glenn who's recalling that day in his head and he doesn't like the imagine. Glenn continues and admits to Rick that given all they've been through, if he had the chance to do it all over again, he wouldn't have stopped to try and save the man trapped in the storage container at Terminus, and he would've killed Dawn without hesitation. However Michonne is becoming disturbed by the cynicism, "We need to stop. You can be out here too long" Michonne says and everyone looks to her before they start to wander off into more houses.
On the back of the community, beside a broken wall surrounded by mutilated legs, Michonne expresses her idea to stay in the neighborhood as everyone comes back together with trash bags, pillow cases, book bags filled with things they've found. "We could put some of the garage doors together against the break. Park the car against them until we can brick it back up" Michonne informs and Jane looks at Rick who's considering the idea but is obviously hesitant.
"This place is surrounded by a forest. There's no sight lines" Rick admits and Michonne looks quite annoyed with his answer but the 4 of them continue walker together. "Whoever, whatever would be on top of us without us even knowing it" Rick says making reasonable explanations. "That could be what have happened. The burned buildings and corpses" Jane adds as Glenn nods in agreement. "That's what happened to us" Glenn states and Michonne still wasn't happy with the answer.
"We could start taking down the trees and use them to build the walls up" Michonne says and Rick sighs looking to her but she's not ready to quit on this place just yet. Just then, Noah is heard screaming for help and the group runs off to save him from several walkers that have him cornered. "It's Tyreese!" Noah shouts and Jane widens her eyes. "He's been bit" Noah informs and they set off in the direction of Noah's house.
They walk into the house and see Tyreese on the ground of the bedroom with his face pale, sweating sliding down his cheeks and blood running down his arm. Rick grabs ahold of his hand and begins holding his arm tight for Michonne to amputate the hand off to stop the infection from spreading. The group then haul Tyreese from the house and to the front gates. They smash the locks off and open the doors, walkers spilling in.
Jane grabs her gun and blade and shoots a few walkers then stabs them with her blade. When one of the walkers get to close she kicks it in Michonne's direction and Michonne uses her katana and kills it instantly. Jane looks back and sees Noah unable to hold Tyreese up who's cut arm is bleeding heavily. Jane rushes towards them and wraps the blanket around Tyreese's arm tightly. "Come on, Tyreese. You got this" Jane mumbles and looks to see Tyreese almost passing out. They quickly dispatch all of the walkers and begin carrying Tyreese all the way back to their car but it's clear Tyreese is growing weaker as they get to the car but they're not letting him die. They just lost someone. Tyreese can't be the next. Rick radioes Carol to tell her that they have to cauterize the arm to stop the bleeding.
After a momentary stalling, in which the car gets stuck and then crashes into a truck filled with mutilated walkers—the upper halves of the legs seen by Rick, Glenn, and Michonne and they manage set off. Jane looks down at Tyreese as they begin driving trying to get him back to Carol so they could help Tyreese. Tyreese takes a final glance of everyone in the car, looks out of the car window, watching the sunset. Jane furrows her eyebrows and touches Tyreese's pulse.. but there isn't one. "Guys.. Guys! He's not breathing!" Jane shouts and The everyone in the car pull over after realizing he has passed away and come to a stop. They pull him from the car onto the road and Michonne puts him down, as the others are distraught...
At the funeral, Gabriel reads lines from the bible as the others stand over his grave site. Daryl looks highly saddened and Sasha is visually shocked by the death of her brother, unable to even bury him so Rick, enraged he's lost another friend - the very man who saved his daughter - buries him personally. As the group walks away from the grave Jane looks back and sees Tyreese's beanie on the grave and a tear slides down her cheek before she continues to meet up with the rest of her group.