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— PART ONE of THREE —
WHEN THE DEAD COME KNOCKING
"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU GAVE AWAY HALF OUR GUNS." Daryl mumbled.
"Hey, you guys got me back. That's gotta count for something." Glenn retorted. Daryl just glared at him, causing the rest of them to erupt in laughter.
"Who was the keys?" T-Dog asked.
All eyes were on Emerson. She started to look in her pockets, but the moving truck keys were no where to be found.
"I'm just kidding. I left them in the truck."
With that, Rick slid into the driver's side and Emerson sat in the passenger's seat. The rest of them sat in the back and quickly fell asleep.
About twenty minutes had passed when Rick said, "It was the best friend cliche."
"Huh?" She asked.
"She was sleeping with Shane. They just didn't think I knew about it."
Emerson was quiet.
"Lori and I stopped loving each other a long time ago." He began, "I'm not oblivious, Emerson. Just don't get yourself hurt, alright?"
She then knew that he was referring to her and Shane. "I don't have feelings for Shane, and now that I know he's a dirty, rotten, side piece, I want nothing to do with him."
Rick glanced over at her, "Good."
Emerson's face grew hot, but she didn't dare say anything else.
The rest of the ride was quiet. When they finally pulled up to the quarry, it was almost dark. Everyone was surrounding the fire, eating dinner.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and set their plates down. Silas came over first, engulfing his sister in an embrace.
"Thank god you came back. Where's Merle?"
"Well. . . We found a part of him." Before Silas could ask any more questions, Carl ran to Emerson.
"I knew you guys would be safe." He told her.
"Because I'm Batman, right?" She laughed.
Shane smiled at Emerson and eventually caught her gaze, motioning for her to come with him. She shook her head and rolled her eyes at him before putting her attention elsewhere.
Suddenly, a loud shrill came from the RV. Everyone's eyes averted to the camper, and there they saw Amy being attacked.
Andrea screamed and ran over to her, pulling out her silver Smith & Wesson 3913, to kill the two Walkers that surrounded her sister.
Emerson drew her weapon with Silas behind her. She heard Rick tell them to stay with him and Carl.
Walker's just kept coming at the group. Shane stood by their side, closer to Emerson and Silas.
They tried to protect who they could, but in the end, more than half of their own were gone.
Emerson dropped to her knee's as she took in the scene. Walker's littered the area, along with their family.
She heard Carl's cries behind her. The sight was miserable. Heartbreaking, even.
The detective wouldn't let herself cry. It was a heavy weight to carry, and Emerson felt like she had to bear it.
They went into the city for guns and ammo, and they came back with less than what they had originally brought back.
All due to the killers that lingered throughout the woods and beyond.
Bringing her out of her thoughts, was a small boy. He wrapped his arms around her and cried.
"Emmy. . ." He said softly as his sobs filled the air.
The word didn't have time to register in Emerson's mind. Instead, she embraced him and hoped that the pieces of her heart could stay together long enough for Carl Grimes.
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The next morning, everyone was dragging bodies and making piles. Walkers went into one, and their people went into the other.
Emerson opted to dig graves with Shane and Rick. It only ended in arguing about their next move.
"Say it." said Rick.
"Okay," Shane scoffed, "I'm thinkin' if you guys woulda stayed here, this wouldn't have happened. Our loss wouldn't be so bad. Instead, you barely got back in time for all
Hell to break loose and took half our man power with you."
"If we hadn't of gone off and brought those guns back, our losses would have been worse." Rick responded.
Before Shane could speak again, Emerson spoke up, "I've been saying for weeks we need to have a training session with these people. If we were all trained on a weapon, last night wouldn't have been bad at all. We would have held our own.
"So get your damn head out of your fucking ass, Walsh. We lost people, now we have to fix it and move on." She finished, throwing her shovel his way.
This made him angry. He started to storm after her, until Rick stopped him.
"Don't." He warned. Instead, Shane shoved his friend off and caught up with Emerson.
"What is your deal, woman?" Shane asked her.
"My deal Shane, is that you are a lying, dirty, rotten, mistress! I don't fuck guys who help other women cheat on their husbands."
"You watch your mouth, Scott. Lori came on to me–"
"Oh, so you just couldn't keep your dick in your pants?" She asked him. "God, and to think I might have actually started to like you!"
Shane was shocked. He had been pining after Emerson since they got to camp.
"That was the past. I'm different now. Lori is just as much at fault as I am." He defended. "Look, Emmy, I'm sorry. It was wrong and I knew it."
Emerson didn't say anything. She looked up at Shane, whose brown eyes were pouring into hers. She was weak.
"Just leave me be for a while, alright? Go apologize to your partner for sleeping with his wife."
Shane just nodded and turned on his heel. Emerson watched him walk away and then did the same. She walked back down to where Silas was and asked him how things were coming along.
"We're almost done. Just gotta load a few more, then we'll head up there."
Emerson nodded in reply and then walked over to collect Carl. "You ready to head up there?"
Carl didn't say anything, but instead, stood up and grabbed her hand. She led the group up to the top of the hill, with the truck in front of them.
"There are no rules." She heard Rick say.
"Well, we need some." She argued.
Silas rolled his eyes, "Now is not the time to argue, Emerson. We need to bury our dead. That's what people do." He told her.
She shrunk back and stayed quiet. As did Rick and Shane, along with Daryl who was standing with them.
One by one they lowered the bodies into the graves. Everyone watched Andrea lower Amy into the ground, and struggle to do so.
Dale offered to help her, but Andrea refused.
The scene broke their hearts.
"It's not fair." Carl mumbled, crying softly.
Emerson placed her finger in between her teeth, biting the skin off. A nervous habit she had whenever things got tough.
Silas did the same.
It was a heartbreaking loss for them that fateful day. Lives were lost, and now, they wondered what they would do next.
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