CAVE IN, part one-120
Cassie stood with her family listening to Gabriel's speech about Saddiq, whipping away a stray tear as the man picked up a handful of dirt and placed it on the grave. Everyone from Hilltop had come to the funeral, each devastated at the loss of one of their people.
Each of the members of Hilltop and Alexandria took their turns saying goodbye and placing a handful of dirt on Saddiq's grave. Cassidy's heart clutched with sadness as she watched Rosita crouch down placing her handful of dirt on the father of her child's grave, tears fell from the woman's eyes.
As the funeral was over, everyone disbanded leaving the mourning woman in peace. Cassie went to pick up her brother, while their father carried RJ away when Carl stepped out of her reach and walked towards Rosita.
The eight-year-old watched her brother kneel down next to their aunt, placing his tiny on her shoulder which caused her to look at him. A small smile spread across her lips as Rosita hugged Carl, needing someone to hold in a time of need.
"It's okay, Ro," Carl whispered. "I'm here. I'll make you feel better,"
Rosita squeezed the boy tighter as tears cascaded down her face. "Thank you,"
A few minutes later, the pair let each other go before standing up and walking over to Cassie, hand in hand. The youngest Dixon girl grabbed Rosita's free hand as they walked down the street.
A few hours later, Cassidy was on the back of her aunt Carol's horse with her short arms wrapped around her torso. Daryl, Carol, and Aaron were meeting with a few of the others to search for Alpha's horde.
Her father was reluctant on letting her come at first but agreed knowing she was exactly like her mother. He did, however, make a couple of rules.
When they stopped, Cassie slid off the horse as Connie, Jerry, Kelly, and Magna came out of the woods. The four of them walked towards the trio with Daryl greeting them. While Aaron and Kelly, and Carol and Jerry hugged, Cassie barreled into Connie, wrapping her arms tightly around the woman.
Connie smiled, tapping the little girl's back three times in greeting, which Cassie returned. The eight-year-old pulled away, before giving Kelly a quick hug, fist bumping Jerry and giving Magna a small smile.
"Let's go to it. Screw these freaks." Magna said as they started walking. Cassie walked between her father and Connie as they talked.
"Thanks for helping." Her father signed.
Connie waved him off. "Anything for us."
By the time the group got to the border, it was dark, Cassie stayed close to her father as they stopped behind Carol. Aunt Carol paused for a moment before walking toward the border. The father and daughter followed after the woman, the older pulled out her bow and arrow stepping towards the woods when Daryl called out to her.
"Hey. Wait. Coulda lost a foot."
"They laid traps. Means we're getting closer," Carol said, nodding her head towards the woods. "I saw something over there."
"Will you stop this shit? Please." Daryl says as his daughter picked up a large branch. "You want her dead so bad, you don't even care what happened to you."
"That's not true," The woman dismissed.
"You never came off that boat. It's been like talking to a goddamn ghost."
Carol shifted on her feet, her eyes welled up with tears. "I'm doing the best I can."
"I'm the one you tell. Me." Daryl said, pointing to himself.
"I don't...I don't know how," Carol's voice broke as Cassie grabbed her hand.
"You gotta try, alright?" Daryl said, before pulling his best friend into a hug. "She's not worth it. She's not. Look at me. She's a dead woman, anyway. We have a future. Don't let her take that, too. You good?"
Carol nodded as her friend wiped away a tear from her cheek. She squeezed her niece's hand before Daryl and she pulled away. "Yeah."
Cassie handed her father the large branch that she had picked up and watched as he stuck it in the trap, causing it to snap shut. Hand in hand, she walked with her aunt before letting when a walker came towards them. Carol stabbed it in the head, stepped over it, and continued to walk.
By the next day, the group came to a clearing that Aaron had told them about. He had been talking to a Whisperer named Mary and she had told him where the horde would be. Cassie shielded her eyes from the sun as she looked into the clearing and saw that it was empty.
Her father growled under his breath before turning away. "Goddamn it."
"Wait," Aaron called.
Daryl whipped around. "For what?"
"This doesn't mean Mary lied to us, alright? They were protecting this place. T-They put a trap in the road as a deterrent." Aaron explained.
"Yeah, from some hunter a decade ago," Her father said, angrily.
"No. That thing was rigged more recently than that, and you know it."
"You wanna stand around and figure it out?"
Aaron sighed. "Look, the herd could have been here last week or yesterday. We had an obligation to come to check this out."
"Nah. Time to find Lydia." Daryl shook his head. "Cas, c'mon."
Cassie glanced at Aaron before jogging after her father with the others following.
***
"Lydia would have taken this river downstream. Back to our side." her father said as they were searching the woods for Lydia.
Cassidy stopped next to her aunt, who looking at something in the distance. "What are you looking at, aunt Carol?" Her aunt didn't answer as her eyes landed on someone across the clearing. "That's Alpha, isn't it?"
Aunt Carol nodded as Daryl called for them. "Hey, Carol, Cassie, let's go,"
"You go on. I'll meet you." Carol replied. "Stay here, Cassie,"
The woman walked forwards, getting closer to the clearing. Cassidy didn't listen and followed after her aunt with her eyes glued to Alpha who was looking at them with rage in her eyes.
Her father walked towards the pair with the others following. "Nope. We all stay together,"
Suddenly, Carol took off sprinting towards Alpha with Cassie hot on her heels. The eight-year-old shouts were drowned by her father and groups hurried after them.
"Carol! Cassidy!" her father yelled.
"Aunt Carol! Stop!" she shouted.
She entered the other side of the woods, weaving through the trees, chasing after her aunt Carol who was a bit in front of her. She could Alpha ahead of her aunt running towards another section of the woods. As Cassie slid to a stop behind her aunt, who stopped at the edge of the woods, she saw Alpha disappear into a hole in the hill.
Carol hurried towards it, making Cassie follow her. They slid down a slope, climbing it before heading into the cave. Her hand latched onto the back of her aunt's shirt as they moved through the dark cave.
They seemed to have lost Alpha in the darkness before seeing light near the end of the tunnel. The pair hurried towards it before the ground suddenly came out from under them causing them to fall through it and roll down a cliff before landing on the ground with a thud.
Cassie grunted, sitting up with the help of her aunt. Carol checked over her niece, dusting off a bit of soot from the little girl's face. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Are you?" She asked before getting cut off by several other people falling down the hole they came through and landed near them.
Kelly, Connie, Magna, Aaron, and Jerry all grunted as they stood up, looking around to see where they were. The loud growling of walkers suddenly irrupted and startled her as her father rolled down the cliff and landed near them.
Cassie pulled out her bow and arrow, turned around towards the sound of walkers, and saw thousands upon thousands of walkers above them. Her eyes were wide as her heart pounded in her chest, grabbing ahold of Kelly's arm.
"Uh, hey guys?" Jerry called, his voice weaving a bit as he pointed upwards.
Cassie looked up to see Alpha standing on a ledge with a flaming stick and Carol let out a scream of rage as she stared up at the leader of the Whisperers.
After Alpha left, Magna was trying to climb up the cliff that they had fallen down from, with the help of Daryl and Jerry before she fall again. The little girl stabbed a walker in the head as it tried climbing up the side of the cliff they were standing on.
Her heart was pounding in her chest, she was scared. Cassie was like her mother in many ways, but she still got scared. Even though she is only eight, her father believed that she was capable of handing herself outside the walls of their home and he was right. She proved that, but that doesn't mean the outside wasn't scary to her.
She stood next to Connie and Kelly as her father looked for another way out when climbing up the cliff wasn't working. He shined his flashlight over the sea of walkers before stopping on something.
"You got something?" Aaron asked.
"Groundwater's deeper in here. That water's coming from outside." He said, shining his flashlight on the water.
"I don't see a way across," Carol said, over the growls of the walkers.
"Whoa, whoa. Go back," Aaron said, pointing to something Daryl over-crossed. The redneck panned over two large boulders until he got to the other side. "We could use those to jump across."
"Nice," Daryl said.
"Wait." Kelly snapped her head towards the man. "For real?"
Cassie watched as her father jumped into the first rock, making her heart jump. He motioned for the rest to come as he jumped over to the next me.
"Cassie, you next," Carol said, reaching out for the little girl.
Cassidy grabbed her aunt's hand, placing herself in front. "I'm scared."
"The rest of you go. Cassie, it's okay. You can be afraid, but you can do it." Carol tried to reassure her niece as some of the others jumped across. "That's why your dad let you come because he knows you can do it. I'll be right behind you."
"Me too." Connie placed a hand on the girl's shoulder, gaining her attention. "We got you."
Cassie nodded, squeezing her aunt's and Connie's hands before letting go. She took a deep breath before stepping back a bit and jumped. She landed on the first rock, holding out her arms for balance, and looked up to see her father standing on the other waiting for her.
Glancing back at Carol and Connie, the women nodded to her before she made it over to the next rock. On the second rock, her breathing started to pick up as the walkers reached out for her.
"C'mon, Cassie." Her father called. "You're almost there."
As she stepped onto the rock path corrected to the second boulder as Carol was right behind her. The older woman got in front of her niece, grabbed her hand, and continued. Carol climbed over the rock first, stepping on the side with the group before helping Cassie.
Her father was on another ledge, waiting for them to jump across. Carol jumped first with Daryl's help, she slid a bit before being pulled up. The walkers were becoming more agitated as it was Cassie's turn.
"C'mon. I got ya." Daryl said, reaching out to his daughter. "I got ya."
Cassie looked down at the sea of walkers between her and her father, her heart pounding fastly in her chest as she looked back at Daryl.
"I can't do it, daddy."
"You can," Daryl says in urgency. "You can, baby. I got ya."
The eight-year-old took a deep breath before jumping across the opening. She let out a scream as she slid on the side of the ledge, her feet dangling. Daryl had latched onto her hand, his heart plummeting into his stomach as his daughter kicked at the walkers that tried to grab her.
With the help of her father, Cassie climbed the rest of the way before standing on her feet and latching onto her father. The father and daughter pulled, but she kept a hand clutched on his shirt. Tears welled up in her eyes as she climbed up the rock stairs and into a cave system.
Her father lit a walker's arm with Jerry got from cutting off Kelly's leg when a Walker grabbed her. She wiped away the tears that escapes her eyes, as her hand was latched onto Jerry's shirt.
Her father was in front of the group, handed Connie the arm on fire, and signed. "Alright. I need you to stay here, alright? Keep everyone together, keep Cassidy safe."
Connie nodded before Daryl walked off. The woman motioned for Cassie towards her, which the girl instantly did and placed a hand on the back of her neck with her thumb gently rubbing in comfort.
"Should I even ask how we're doing on food?" Aaron asked Jerry.
"Not great." The man replied.
"Food?" Kelly questioned, her eyes wide. "How long do you think we gonna be here?"
"Hey, no worries. Walkers got in here somehow. We'll get out." Jerry reassured the woman.
"I think we know exactly how they got here. Alpha put them here. These are theirs. We have to assure we're not alone." Aaron explained, taking the arm on fire from Connie.
With her hand, Connie signaled Carol, who looked panicked, an 'ok?' before placing her hands back on Cassie's shoulders.
Carol nodded. "I'm fine. Just a little winded."
"She's claustrophobic," Daryl says as he walked past the group holding a match.
Carol looked mildly offered as Magna crossed her arms over her chest. "Why didn't you think of that before you and the kid got us all trapped down here?"
"Hey," Aaron spoke up. It's not the time for this."
"Why not? Seems like we have plenty of it. " Magna throws up her hands. She stepped forwards to Cassie and Carol, getting into their faces. "What the hell were you two thinking, huh? Running off like that by yourselves."
Cassie pushed herself into Connie, who told Magna to back off and to leave her alone as her father came back.
"Hey! We ain't got time for this shit. We got in this mess together. We're gonna get out of it together. Now follow me." Daryl said before walking away. "I think I found a way out."