The next morning, Bella sat by the ashes of the previous campfire. She couldn't help but allow her eyes to close from exhaustion. Constantly, she would be on the brink of unconsciousness, but she snapped herself awake out of fear. Her bloodshot eyes demanded sleep, but she was too scared to close them.
You close your eyes for a second and you're already dead.
Everything felt like a nightmare, but it wasn't, it was real. Their camp - their families - had been attacked by the dead. It had been so sudden, and so quick, that they had no time to prepare. The attack must have only lasted ten minutes, but it felt like a lifetime leaving catastrophic damage in its wake.
Ironically, the attack still wasn't over. It was an everlasting battle between the living and the dead.
Bella turned her attention to her surroundings instead. Group members moved around burning bodies or had decided to being gathering up all the supplies in camp, knowing they couldn't stay here much longer.
Bella's eyes fell on Andrea who was staring down at her sister, Amy. The pair of sisters made everyone nervous. Daryl had called Amy a ticking time bomb' that could go off at any minute and Bella agreed with him.
"She still won't move?" Rick asked as he stood with the small huddle of the group.
Lori shook her head. "She won't even talk to us. She's been there all night. What do we do?"
"We can't just leave Amy like that. We need to deal with it. Same as the others." Shane said.
"I'll tell her how it is." Rick offered.
Rick walked over to Andrea side and immediately pulled out her gun, aiming it at am. Rick slowly made his way back to the group, leaving Andrea with her dead sister.
Bella sighed and looked down at her new and own knife that had been given to her this morning. Daryl had wanted her to have more practice before he even considered allowing such a weapon in his daughter's life, so she got a knife.
She didn't feel any safer with the sharp blade. In fact, she didn't even know how she would work with hand-to-hand combat but hopefully it wouldn't come down to that for a while.
Daryl scoffed. "Y'all can't be serious. Let that girl hamstring us? The dead girl's a time bomb."
"What do you suggest?" Rick questioned.
"Take the shot." Daryl answered honestly. "Clean, in the brain from here. I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance."
"No." Lori protested. "For God's sake, let her be."
Daryl took a deep breath before he walked over to help Morales pile up the walkers into the fire.
"We don't burn them! We bury them!" Glenn shouted. "Understand? Our people go in that row over there."
Bella turned her attention to Glenn screaming at her father over a dead body. Glenn had made it very clear that he wanted every camp member that didn't survive to have a proper burial while the walkers were just burned.
"Y'all left my brother for dead!" Daryl yelled, placing the dead person to the row near the RV. "You had this coming!"
Then, without another word, he stormed off into the forest and the camp was in silence. Bella sighed before she pulled herself to her feet and walked over to Glenn. She bent down to grab the feet of the dead member.
"I'll help." Bella insisted.
Glenn shook his head. "You don't need to, I got it."
"Glenn, I'm helping." Bella said as she didn't release the body.
He didn't argue and they carried the body together towards the fire. Dropping the body near the pile meant to be buried, Bella wiped her hands and started back for another once.
"A Walker got him. A Walker bit Jim!" Jacqui announced.
Bella froze as the adults circled around Jim. The man looked absolutely terrified as everyone looked at him, keeping their distance away from him.
"Show it to us." Daryl demanded.
Jim than began swinging a shovel around, trying to defend himself. Then T-Dog restrained his arms and Daryl pulled up Jim's shirt to reveal a bite on his stomach. Bella eyes widened on the puffy, red wound and she grimaced.
Bella than huddled with everyone in the group. It took them a while to decide what to do with Jim. She nervously played with her fingers as she looked over at Jim, who sat beside the RV.
"I say we put a pickaxe in his head and the dead girl's." Daryl suggested.
"Is that what you'd want if it were you?" Shane questioned.
"Yeah." Daryl replied. "I'd thank you while you did it."
"I hate to say it, I never thought I would, but maybe Daryl's right." Dale said.
Bella shook her head. "Jim's not a monster, Dale, or some rabid dog. He's a sick man."
"Bella's right." Rick agreed, speaking up from beside her. "Where do we draw the line?"
"The line's pretty clear. Zero tolerance for walkers or them to be." Daryl responded.
"What if we can get him help?" Rick wondered. "I heard the CDC was working on a cure."
Shane sighed. "I heard a lot of things before the world went to hell."
"What if the CDC's still up and running?" Rick asked.
"That is a stretch right here." Shane told him.
"Why?" Rick questioned. "If there's any government left, any structure at all, they'd protect the CDC at all costs. I think it's out best shot. Shelter, protection...."
"You want those things. I do too, okay? Now, if they exist, they're at the army base, Fort Benning." Shane said.
"That's 100 miles in the opposite direction." Lori pointed out.
Shane nodded. "That is right. But it's away from the hot zone. If it's operational, it'll be heavily armed. We'd be safe there."
"The military were on the front lines." Rick informed the group. "They got overrun. We've all seen that. The CDC's our best choice and Jim's only chance."
"You go looking for aspirin, do what you need to do. Someone needs to take care of this damn problem!" Daryl exclaimed as he turned around and lifted the pickaxe, trying to get a good swing at Jim.
Rick cocked the gun at the back of Daryl's head before he could get close. "We don't kill the living."
"That funny coming from a man who just put a gun to my head." Daryl spat, lowering the axe to his side.
"We may disagree on some things, but not this." Shane said. "You put it down. Go on."
Bella let out a small sigh and ran her fingers through her brown locks. People within the group began to go in their separate ways. Carl was around here somewhere, probably with his mother, and Bella was happy to know that he was safe. He was her best friend. She never wanted anything to happen to him.
Bella jumped out of her skin when a gunshot rang out.
She turned to see Andrea who was still leaning over Amy but this time there was a gun in Andrea's hand a bullet hole in Amy's head.
Amy was gone for good.
Bella began to walk towards one the trucks filled with the dead that were meant to be buried.
"Ready for the funeral?" Carl asked, appearing beside her.
"Funeral?" Bella wondered.
"Yeah, we're having a service, I guess. Just to honour their memory." Carl explained.
The two walked down a dirt path and Bella saw everyone was already there waiting for the service to begin. Bella also noticed Shane, Daryl and Rick all standing over the graves, talking about who should be in charge.
"These people need to know who the hell's in charge, what the rules are." Daryl said.
"There are no rules." Rick stated.
"That's the problem." Lori spoke, earning their attention. "We haven't had a minute to hold on to anything of our old selves. We need time to mourn, and we need to bury our dead. That's what people do."
Bella lowered her head as everyone placed the bodies in their graves. She noticed that many people had tears in their eyes. The last person to be buried was Amy, who was being carrying by Andrea into the grave. Bella sighed as she slipped her knife in her waistband and fell silent beside Carl.
••••
When the service was over, they slowly exited the burial ground and headed back towards the centre of camp. After a couple hours later, the group stood around the campfire, not knowing what to do next.
Shane cleared his throat. "I've, uh... I've been thinking about Rick's plan. Look, there are no... There are no guarantees either way. I'll be the first one to admit that. I've known this man a long time. I trust his instincts. I say the most important thing is we need to stay together. So... those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning. Okay?"
Everyone splits off in opposite directions and Daryl came over to Bella with a frown on his face. At first, she thought he wanted his knife back but instead it was the complete opposite, and the frown was just a part of his natural look.
"Start packing, pal. We're leaving with the others tomorrow." He ordered.
Bella nodded and began walking back towards their tent.
Night was already beginning to fall as Bella stuffed her clothing into her small duffel bag. She didn't have many clothes, but her bag was still buldging by the time she was done.
Then she took down the tent and started taking the bags over to Daryl's truck and she tossed them inside. There was already another small fire burning and Bella sat down beside it afterward.
It didn't take long for her eyes to close after the long day she had. Bella then fell asleep.
••••
Bella woke up that morning sprawled on the dirt. She stood up and stumbled towards the group where they huddled around Shane and Rick.
"Everybody, listen up! Those of you with CBs, we're going to be on Channel 40. Let's keep the chatter down, okay? You got a problem, don't have a CB, can't get a signal, hit your horn one time. That'll stop the caravan. Any questions?" Shane wondered.
"We're, uh... We're not going." Morales spoke, gesturing to himself and his family.
"We have family in Birmingham. We want to be with our people." Morales wife explained.
"You won't have anyone to watch your back." Shane reminded.
"We'll take the chance." Morales responded. "I got to do what's best for my family."
"Are you sure?" Rick asked.
Morales nodded. "We talked about it. We're sure."
Rick and Shane both agreed and reached into the duffel bag. Rick grabbed a handgun while Shane held a small green box with ammo inside of it. The two walked over to Morales and his family, handing them the weapon.
"The box is half full." Shane told Morales.
"Thank you. For everything." Morales wife said gratefully.
Everyone said their goodbyes and wished Morales and his family good luck. Bella gave them all a sad smile as she stood beside her father.
"What makes you think our odds are any better?" Shane wondered quietly. "Come on. Let's go. Let's move out!"
Bella walked towards Daryl's car, crawling inside. Resting her chin in her hands, she almost began to fall asleep again but then the door opened and slammed closed again, jolting her awake.
Car engines coming to life filled her ears and they all slowly began moving forward. Bella took one last glimpse at the now empty camp. Then, she turned her back and didn't look back.
After a while, the caravan of cars began to slow and quickly came to a stop. They all exited the cars and Bella saw Shane and Rick dragging out a very weak-looking Jim. She was surprised he hadn't turned yet since it had been nearly two days.
The sick man mumbled things that Bella couldn't hear, and she stayed protectively behind her father. She glanced around curiously, checking for walkers but the roads were empty.
Bella didn't say goodbye to Jim. She had already said too many. Instead, she walked back to the car and jumped inside. Her sight didn't leave Jim's body even as they began to move, and it was only after they had rounded a corner that she finally looked away.
••••
"Bella, wake up." Daryl called, shaking her shoulders.
Bella woke with a start and up ahead she could see what must have been the CDC. She climbed outside, slipping her bag onto her shoulders and held her knife tightly in her right hand. As soon as everyone was gathered, they began to move.
The dead were everywhere and there was no sign that there were any other living people here beside them. Bella began to feel nervous when she noticed that sun was beginning to set. They needed to find some place safe for the night.
She then felt someone's hand enclose her and she looked over to see Carl. Bella gave him a small smile as they approached the heavy doors. Shane and Rick quickly tried to open the steel shutters, but they wouldn't budge.
"There's nobody here." T-Dog said.
"Then why are these shutters down?" Rick asked.
"Walkers!" Daryl exclaimed. Bella whipped around to see a Walker slowly approaching. Daryl raised his crossbow towards the Walker and fired, causing it to fall dead. "You led us into a graveyard!"
Many things happened at once. There were tears, there were screams, and there were looks of panic. Carl began to cry and sobbed into his mother's side as Daryl pulled Bella close to his side, raising his crossbow towards the Walkers.
"Where are we going to go?" Bella wondered.
"She's right." Lori agreed. "We can't be this close to the city after dark."
"Fort Benning." Shane suggested, breathing heavily. "Still an option."
"On what?" Andrea questioned. "No food, no fuel. It's 100 miles."
"Forget Fort Benning, we need answers tonight, now!" Lori exclaimed.
"We'll think of something." Rick reassured. "The camera! It moved!"
"You imagined it." T-Dog told him.
"It's moved." Rick said as he walked towards the camera on the wall.
"Rick, it's dead, man. It's an automated device. It's gears, they're just winding down. Come on!" Shane insisted, trying to drag Rick away who refused. "Look around this place. It's dead, okay? You need to let it go, Rick!"
Rick threw himself at the shutter doors and began pounding his fists against them.
"I know you're in there!" He shouted to the camera. "I know you can hear me! Please, we're desperate! Please help us! We have women, children, no food, hardly any gas left! We have nowhere else to go! If you don't let us in, you're killing us!"
That's when everything changed. One moment, Bella's world had been clouded in the darkness and her death had been written in stone as she stood alongside her father.
Then, as if the changing of gears, she heard a sliding of steel doors being opened and everyone froze as they were basked into the safety of an unknown light and an unknown saviour..
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PUBLISHED: 28.03.18
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