PROMISE THE WORLD-087
Matilda walked away from her biological mother's body, stabbing the incoming walkers and headed towards her house. Climbing up the stairs, something caught her eyes—stained on the porch was two blue hand prints.
Carl and Judith's hands prints.
Her heart clenched at the slight, knowing her baby brother had spend his time with their sister. The door of the house opened, a hand placed on her shoulder making Tilly look towards them.
Michonne gave her a knowing look with tears in her eyes, she too had seen the hand prints.
"C'mon, Til."
The pair followed after her father towards a van, which they were loading the supplies they had rummaged. Michonne stared at the burning pavilion, the one her brother used to sit on.
"He used to sit on the roof." The woman said, gloomily.
"We have to go." Her father replied as his girlfriend picked up a fire extinguisher and took off towards the pavilion.
"Go." Matilda muttered as she climbed into the van. "Help her."
As her father went to help Michonne, she sat in the back of the van with her knees drawn to her stomach. Her back rested against the cold metal as her father and Michonne climbed into the van.
Rick drove off, leaving behind their home in ruins. It was silent for a while before her father spoke.
"What did you think he meant? Did he want us stop fighting the Saviors? Just...surrender to Negan?"
"Lee and Carl— they didn't want it to go this far. They didn't want to fight, they wanted peace." Matilda answered, rubbing her eyes.
Neither did her father and Michonne answer, they seemed to be in deep thought after what she said. It was truth, the boys didn't want war, didn't want to fight. Peace between the Alexandria and Saviors.
"We could pull over. We could read what he wrote." Michonne spoke, picking up the stack of letters.
"No. Not yet. Not me." Rick shook his head.
Michonne sorted though the stack of letters, reaching back to her boyfriend's daughter and handed her two letters. Taking the letters, Matilda stared at them, her and her oldest brother's name was written in their youngest brother's hand writing.
Carl had written a letter to his brother, he wanted to say all the things he couldn't before Lee was killed. His brother's death had hit him like a train. As Tilly read Lee's letter, she now understand how much her oldest brother meant to their baby brother.
In the letter, Carl explained how he looked up to Lee, how he wished he turn back time and take the bullet for his brother. But in the end, they both were gone. That if Carl did take the bullet, Lee woulda taken his place and got bitten.
Lee woulda done the same thing he did. Save Siddiq. Being him back to their home and find a way to convince their father to left him stay.
In the end, they both would be dead. No matter what how it happened.
Matilda wiped away her eyes as she folded up the letter, pocketing it with hers. She didn't know how to feel, losing both of her brothers in a spend of roughly a month or so.
Losing one of her best friends was one thing, but losing her brothers, that was a whole different level. The pain she felt after Glenn was far worst than she ever felt. It was almost numb, a numb pain, prickling though her.
Her heart felt so though it was stabbed repeatedly, over and over again. She felt as though she couldn't breathe as she leant forwards slightly. She couldn't bare to lose anyone else, she wanted this to stop.
It was her brothers dying wish. No more fighting. Just peace. Peace between them and Saviors.
As the van stopped in front of the garbage people's base, Matilda took a second to get her breathing back down before climbing out of the van. She followed after her father and Michonne, her gun by her side as they slowly walked though the entrance crate.
Her father pushed the door of the crate open, his gun aimed up as a rumble from above them alarmed them. The trio looked up to see a large pile of trash booby-trapped against the door.
Matilda hurried out of the way with her father and Michonne following as the trash fall and blocked the way out. Suddenly the growling of walkers caught their attention making the trio shoot at them and push their way though the herd.
"Come on!" Michonne yelled as she started to climb up the pile of trash.
Matilda and her father followed, Michonne grabbed her hand and pulled her to the top. At the top, the dark haired woman looked down at all the walkers that happen to be the trash people.
"Rick." A familiar voice called out.
The trio turned and saw Jadis sitting on her trash in a white gown as Michonne spoke up. "What happened here?"
"The Saviors." The trash queen replied.
"How do we get out?" Matilda questioned, looking up at the woman.
"Get out...how you got in. There weren't heaps before. It was just trash laid out, as far as the eye could see. I used to come here to find thing to paint on. Metal sheets. Fabrics. And then after...everything changed..." Jadis's voice broke as tears welled up in her eyes. "I realized this whole place was a canvas. That we were the paint. We could create something new. We could became something new. We did. This was our world. Apart from everyone else. In every way."
Rick shook his head and throw up his hand. "You did this. This is because of you."
Matilda watched as her father picked up a car door from the ground, bending the metal bars, so they stick out.
"What are you doing?" Michonne asked, looking at her boyfriend.
"We're gonna ran for it." Her father answered, before looking for something for the woman.
"Let me come with you." Jadis called, holding a metal seat. "Just until they're gone."
Rick shook his head, picking up the car door. "Nah, I'm done with her games. She can't help us, anyway. Til, stay close to me."
When the trio climbed the down the pile of garbage, Matilda stayed close to her father as possible as he used the door as a battering ram. She shot two of the walkers that came close to them before her father dropped the door.
They hurried towards the main crate, Rick cleared a path, helped his daughter and girlfriend though the door as Jadis called out from them.
"Wait! Please! Just—just let me get out!"
Rick fired a warning shot into the air before climbing though the door. They hurried towards the van, climbed in and drove off.
"I shot above her head. I just wanted her gone." Her father spoke. "Look, I saw her. She made it. She ran into an empty alley just before I left. I didn't want her dead. I just wanted her gone."
"Feels like what Carl was talking about. What we should do when we have a choice." Michonne said.
Rick stopped the car on the side. "Um, I need a se—I need a second."
"That's fine." Michonne said as Rick told the two letters and a walkie talkie.