TO WHERE THEY ARE-125
Alice was shaken awake by Michonne who was standing over her, the older woman motioned the teen to follow her. Climbing to her feet, the redhead grabbed her weapons, quickly and quietly as she could to not wake up Virgil.
The teen hurried behind the dark-skinned woman, sneaking out of the building they resided in for the night. Alice and Michonne walked around the main inland until they got to the brick building they saw earlier.
Michonne pulled open the door, it creaked loudly as it scraped across the ground making Alice cringe. The duo stepped in, with the older woman in front, holding a flashlight as several growls and snarls of walkers irrupt around them.
The dark-skinned woman shined her light through the window of a door, grabbed the handle, and pulled it open. It creaked loudly, the sound echoing through the building.
Once inside, Alice and Michonne looked around, the room was filled with boxes like they would hold weapons. But instead of holding weapons as they hoped it was nothing. The older woman let out an irritated sigh as the lid to a crate snapped closed.
Suddenly, the woman heard a voice whispering in the distance. "Stay still. Everyone quiet."
Alice shared a fearful look with the woman as Michonne started towards the voice. The redhead quickly followed behind, her hand gripping her knife. As they walked towards the voice, they passed serval animal crates filled with the bones of dead animals.
"Is it him?" Another voice seemed to ask as Alice snapped her gaze away from the animal carcasses.
"I don't know." A woman's voice replied before a series of indistinct whispering irrupt.
Michonne moved faster, her face filled with fear as they got to another room. The older woman stood still, leaning towards a wall trying to hear the voices better.
Suddenly Alice let out a yelp as sometimes hit her on the back of the head. She fall to the ground as Michonne whipped around and saw Virgil standing in the doorway of the room with a pipe in his hands.
Before Michonne could get to the teen, the man grabbed Alice's ankle and pulled her out of the room, and slammed the door shut.
The older woman banged on the metal door, shouting for Virgil and Alice. "Vigil! Ally!"
"Why couldn't you just wait until morning?" Virgil asked looking through the door window. Alice was laying on the ground, unconscious from the hit in the head. "I told you it wasn't safe!"
"Virgil, open the damn door!" Michonne shouted. "Ally!"
"I trusted you both, and you ruined it."
The woman slammed her fist on the door. "Open the damn door, Virgil!"
Virgil slid closed the panel of the window as the dark-skinned woman screamed for both him and Alice. He bent down, picked up the teen, and tossed her over his shoulder.
He walked to another door and slammed it open causing three people to jump in fear. Virgil tossed Alice into the room before closing the door shut again and an audible click of the lock was heard.
***
Alice shot up, breathing heavily as she woke up with a start. Her head was pounding and her vision was slightly blurry as she blinked it away. As her vision cleared, Alice was startled by the three people crowded around her.
"Hey, it's alright." One of the women said, kneeling in front of her.
The woman was a bit on the heavier side, her curly black hair was short and frizzy framing her olive-colored face. Alice's eyes were wide as dinner plates, shifting over to the next woman.
She was smaller in size compared to the first woman, with short wavy blonde hair and pale skin, and next to her was a man. Taller and skinner than both women, he was scruffy looking, with light brown messy hair, and his pale face was covered with a beard.
"W-Where am I?" Alice asked, looking around the small room. This room was different from the other one; this one was lived it, rather than the cold and wet. "Where's Michonne?"
"Hey, it's alright." One of the woman spoke again. "Your friend, she's on the other side of this wall. In the room he took you from. As far as we know she's okay."
Alice climbed to her feet, wedging herself between the two women and placed her face against the tiled wall. She strained, trying to listen for any movement on the other side, when there was a shuffle. She banged her hand against the wall and yelled.
"Michonne!" there was bang and yell of frustration in the other side. "Michonne!"
"Ally!" Michonne cried. "Ally, where are you? Are you okay!?"
Alice sighed in relief, sliding down the wall and onto the bed. "I'm in other room and I'm okay. Are you okay?"
"Y-yeah, I'm fine." The dark woman replied as a shuffle was heard. "How long have I been in here? We been in here?"
The redhead glanced over to the blonde haired woman as she spoke. "A day maybe?"
Michonne moaned. "A day? Why didn't you answer me when I called out to you the first time?"
"He blows up at us sometimes." The man answered. "Gets in one of his moods."
"When he's angry like that, it's best to be quiet." The curly haired woman says.
"You guys know this building, right?" Michonne asked, her voice muffled by the wall. "What's the layout?"
The curly haired woman shook her head. "Don't bother trying to escape."
"Whole place is booby-trapped." The man said in aversion. His face screwed up.
"What's his routine? How often does he come around?"
"As little as possible."
The blonde woman sat down next to Alice. "He doesn't like to see us."
The man stood up as he said. "Celeste and I were researchers with Virgil. We wrote the papers."
"Yeah, and I swept the floors." The curly haired woman said sarcastically.
Celeste playfully hit her. "She assisted us."
It was silent for a moment before Michonne spoke. "So you had a life here. You knew each other."
"Yeah, we were friends with Virgil." The man says, disappointedly.
"Tell me what went wrong."
The curly haired woman, Lucy, spoke up. "Stragglers used to come by boat, stumble on us, and we took 'em in. We took 'em all in."
The man, Jeremiah, says. "One night, it got really bad. Food supplies we're getting low, and a fight broke out over the rations and..."
"And somebody pulled a knife, and this newbie dead." Lucy added in quickly.
"Virgil was late getting there, panicked. Said we need to lock all the doors." Jeremiah continued.
"He didn't know." Lucy murmured. "Virgil didn't know."
Alice frowned, glancing the woman as Michonne asked. "Know what?"
"His wife and kids were inside." Celeste revealed.
Alice sighed, drawing her knees to her chest and placed her head between them. Her hands rest on the back of her head as Michonne spoke. "He snapped."
"He was never the same." Jeremiah said.
"We've been in here ever since." Lucy says.
"You okay?" The man asked both of the women. His eyes on Alice.
"I will be." Michonne replied, as Alice nodding but kept her head between her knees. "We're not stayin here long."
"You and red here, needs to rest and eat." Lucy says, placed a hand on Alice's head. "The food should be okay. Save your strength."
Celeste nudged Alice, holding out a tray of food but the redhead shook her head. "Red, you have to eat."
Jeremiah looked down at the young girl. "You can't kill him if you don't have your strength."
Alice peeked out from over her knee and took the apple that sat on the tray. She took a bit of it before placing her head back between her legs.
"You haven't told us your name." Celeste says, placing the tray down.
"It's Michonne." The dark skinned woman says.
"Alice." Ally whispered, eating the apple.
It felt like an eternity passed since they been stuck in the rooms. Alice didn't know what of day it was as she fading in and out consciousness, fighting the urge to sleep. She sat with her back against the wall, her knees up and out in front of her with her arms hanging over them, she had hear shuffling and pacing footsteps from Michonne (a few hours ago) before they stopped.
Lucy, Celeste, and Jeremiah were quite, the blonde woman and the man seemed to be having the silent conversation through their eyes, while Lucy was sitting beside the redhead, her head resting against the wall and her eyes shut.
"Open the damn door!" Michonne suddenly shouted, startling everyone in the room.
Alice immediately sat up, getting on her knees and planting her the side of her face against the wall. She strained, trying to listen on what going on in the other room. The redhead could hear the faint voice of Virgil and plainly heard the exasperated shouts of Michonne, it was extremely difficult to hear what the mentally unstable man was saying, only getting a few to little no to words.
Then she got incredibly worried when Michonne let out a struggled gasp and grunts before she yelled out. Alice banged on the wall, shouting for her friend but she only received more struggles grunts.
What Alice didn't know was Michonne was tripping on whatever drugs Virgil had given her, the shouts from Alice and dripping on the faucet of the sink echoed through her head like a bouncy ball. The room spin, everything seemed to double as she fanatically looked around.
"What did you—what did you..." She stammered, her eyes focusing and unfocusing on Virgil, who standing in front in front of her.
"Jimsonweed." Virgil echoed through her brain. "Makes a nice tea. Calming. I want you to see. You don't think I see it, but I do. You're in pain, like me. You need peace, like me."
"Like you? No." She sneered. "I don't drug people and toss them in cells."
"'Toss them in cells'?" The man repeated. "Yes. You've said. We've had that conversation three times."
Michonne felt like her brain was going to explode. "I need you to hear me. I need you to think about my daughters and my sons."
"'Think you about my daughters and my sons. Yes, I said those words, too, but no one listened. Everything I did was to protect my family."
She let out a little psychotic laugh. "Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho, I'm sure they're real proud of you now."
"What about my child?" The disembodied voice of Siddiq suddenly spoke.
Michonne snapped her head around, looking for the man, his voice echoing around like a bouncy ball. She shook her head, trying to clear it but it didn't work.
Virgil smiled at her, sinisterly. "You're no angel."
She flinched when a vision of a snarling Walker flashed before her eyes. Then like a turn of a switch, the air become cold causing her to shiver and collapse onto the ground, huddling herself for warmth.
"I'm so cold. It's cold. It's cold." She gasped, irrationally.
"So picture the sun." The voice of Saddiq was back. But this time the voice had a body. "Let the medicine do it's work."
Michonne sat up, crying as she looked at the phantasm. "Saddiq."
The phantasm shook his head. "You were supposed to protect us."
"I did my best." She says, gravely.
"You let me die." The phantasm growled, grabbing her by the arms.
"No!" She cried.
"And Rick and Carl, and Matilda." She cried as the phantasm began to grow aggressive and began to stalk around her. "What happened to Coco? What happened to my family?"
"You are my family!" Michonne cried.
"Well, this is how it feels to be your family!" The phantasm says before it disappears and was replaced by crimson red blood on her hands and the Walker version of Saddiq.
"Stop! Stop it! Stop!" She screamed, closing her eyes.
The growling and echos disappeared and the sound of water dripping from the faucet was normal. Heavily breathing, she looked up at the door and saw Virgil was still standing out of the door.
"Saddiq?" She whimpered, but the echos came back and this time it sounded like chains chiming together. A phantasm of her with a hood and chains that were attached to walkers appeared behind her.
"Stop fighting it." Virgil said, as the phantasm held out the chains for Michonne. "She's waiting." Michonne grabbed the chains before she collapsed on the grounds.
"Michonne!" Alice shouted, her voice breaking as she shouted herself raw. "Michonne!"
"Hey, hey!" Jeremiah finally said, reaching out and grabbing the girl. He pulled her away from the wall and over to the opposite side of the room. "Enough! You're screaming yourself raw and you're going to get us in trouble."
Alice wrenched herself out of the man's hold, and sneered. "Don't touch me, asshole, and that's my friend in there! What the hell did he do?!"
"Jimsonweed. It's a hallucinogenic plant." Lucy says, not opening up her eyes. "He makes tea out of it."
"He drugged her? Why?" She asked, sitting down.
Celeste was about to open her mouth, when a loud scream of pain from Virgil rang out. Alice shot up and ran over to the wall again, standing on the bed and banged her hand against the wall.
"Michonne!" She shouted, as she heard the fighting between Virgil and Michonne. "Michonne!"
A few seconds later, the door of their room opened, revealing a disheveled Michonne. Alice immediately ran towards her, wrapping the woman into a hug, which Michonne returned. They pulled away, the dark skinned woman motioned for them to follow her and sprinted out of the building.
It was dark outside as they ran through the woods towards the shore where the boat was before coming to a abrupt stop. The boat was on fire, Virgil must have set it up in flames. Alice's jaw dropped, that was their only way off the island.
"Holy shit." Celeste murmurs.
Michonne took off into the woods, sprinting after the wobbling Virgil who was not at all fast enough to get away. Alice was lagging a bit behind with the others as her friend tackled the mentally unstable man to the ground and held his knife against his throat.
"I was gonna ask you to help me. I wanted to let them go. I wanted you to be there so they wouldn't kill me. Then you found 'em first and I knew you were gonna kill me, too. I'm sorry." Virgil says.
"You're sorry? 'Sorry' doesn't cut it." Jeremiah sneers in disgust and smashed his foot down on the man's ankle.
Virgil scream in pain before saying. "She alway told me the right thing to do, and then she was gone and I didn't know what to do. And I couldn't let you leave, and I didn't wanna milk you."
"Move, Michonne." Celeste snarled, aiming the crossbow at Virgil.
"You have as much reason to kill this asshole as we do." Jeremiah says.
"I do." Michonne growled. She pressed the knife harder against his throat before freezing for a moment. Then she pulled the knife away and sat up.
"Do it or move." Celeste says, gravely.
Alice and Michonne made eye contact before her friend looked at the others. "Look at him. He owes you more than he can ever make right. Taking his life...you'll lose more of yourself. It doesn't settle it. But your mercy gives you something. You get something."
"What?" Jeremiah asked, almost sarcastically.
"Peace."
Celeste lowered the bow as Jeremiah looked at his friends, but before anyone could say anything more Lucy grabbed the bow and whacked Virgil in the head with it, knocking him out.
***
Alice and Jeremiah had carried the man back to the building and throw Virgil in a cell. Her and Michonne walked into the cell where Virgil was and saw that he was waking up.
"There's nothing here. I checked every building, even the ones you said had structural damage. Not a goddamn thing anywhere." Michonne says, referring to her searching the buildings earlier.
"I know you don't have any reason to believe me, but I never lied to you about the weapons."
"You said you'd seen them."
"I told you I could show you the spots. I got no reason to go in them."
"You have got to do better than that."
Virgil shook his head. "I'm sorry, I can't. Sometimes we find a stray shell, but never any more than...I...I find a stray shell."
"We are not going back empty-handed." Michonne said.
"Take whatever you want. Clear my debt with Oceanside. You took the risk."
"We didn't have a choice." Alice spoke up. "We had to find out."
Michonne tossed him the water canteen. "And there's no tea, so don't even ask." She looked down at him like he was some scum. "What do you see when you're trippin, anyway?"
"Lisa with that damn camera pointed at everyone. My babies. Jasmine sittin by the fire with that book, askin a million questions about a world she'll never know. Bobby and me lyin' on the roof of that Annex, lookin up at the stars. Heaven. I wanted...hoped that you would see that, too." He explained with a smile on his face before disappeared from he looked up at the woman.
"It took my family from me. I saw hell."
"I'm sorry. Only would I ever wanted was one they were in. I don't know how to do this without them."
"You try, like the rest of us. Now, how about you try to find our stuff?"
Virgil lead them to a storage room on a boat where the girls got their stuff. Alice snatched her bag up, ripped it open and searched inside. When she found what she was looking for, she pulled it out, making sure it wasn't ruin and slide it in the back pocket of her jeans.
After her weapons, Alice turned around to see Michonne holding a piece of boots and a flannel to her face. She made eye contact with Virgil and shrugged when she saw the confusion. She had no idea what was going on.
Suddenly Michonne pushed the man against the wall and snarled. "Where the hell did you get those?"
"They washed up. They washed up during the big storm. I don't know where the hell they came from." Virgil grunted as the woman pulled him into another room. "Wait." She handed cuffed him to a pipe. "No, Michonne."
Alice watched from the doorway as the woman fanatically searched around before finding something. It was cellphone with what liked to be a drawing of her and Judith.
"Holy shit. That's you and the kid?" Virgil says.
Michonne turned to him. "You knew. You came to find us at Oceanside."
"No," The man scoffed. "What? Uh, uh, why would I do that?"
"Because of this!" She showed them the photo.
Alice looked at the photo that she assumed was drawn by Rick. Her hand gazed the map in her pocket, watching the reaction of her friend to the photo and Virgil.
"I have never seen that before in my life. I swear." The man says.
"But why are their things here? What was they doing here!?" The woman shouted.
"How the bell would I know?"
"You knew that this boat was here this whole time."
"The world ended. Boats wash up. What did you want me to say?" Virgil shouts back.
Michonne pushed the man against the wall. "You knew that there were no munitions. Were you setting up a trap for us? Did you lay a trap for them? What did you do?!"
Alice actually believed the man and wedged herself between him and her hysterical friend. She pushed against Michonne, moving her away from the man. "Mich, stop! He doesn't know!"
Virgil looked utterly confused. "Who are you talking about?" Michonne sagged against Alice, before pulling away and holding the phone close to her. "I don't know what it is you think I have or who you're liking for, but...maybe it wasn't an accident that we met. If the others will help me, I think we can mad the engine and get it workin again. If those people were on this boat, maybe you can find them again."
Alice screwed up her face, breathing in a breath as the map seemed to taunt her a bit. Michonne was looking for Rick and Matilda, the boots and flannel was theirs, and she knew where that were. The map had the location of where they were, alive and relatively safe.
***
She stood behind Michonne when they were back on the mainland, holding the map in her hand. Virgil came and gave them some supplies, which she and the others went to out of the boat. Him and Michonne talked before the woman got on the boat, saying the man refused to come.
They headed back towards Oceanside, Alice wasn't going with Michonne on her search for Rick and Matilda and they were going to drop her off. Standing outside the door where she talking with her daughter, Alice waited for moment before stepping in the doorway.
She could hear Judith telling her mother that she needed to go and find Rick and Matilda, instead of coming back home.
"She's right." Alice says, making Michonne look up. "Jude's right, Mich."
"We're okay." Judith says from the walkie talkie. "What if they need you more? What if they're trying to come home, too, but no one will help?"
"Ah, god." Michonne sighed. "If I go..."
"When you go and when you find them." The little girl interrupts.
"Okay, okay. When I go...and find Brave Man and Warrior Princess..." The mother started but Jeremiah knocked the roof and said they were at the coast. "I have to go."
"Listen to uncle Daryl and Max, I know." Judith says.
"Okay, babygirl, I'm gonna try. I'm gonna head north. and I'll try you every morning on this walkie for as long as I can."
"I'll take it everywhere."
"I love you and your brothers and sister so much."
"Love you too, Mom. Go get them. Shoto, out."
***
Alice and Michonne walked down the path after they left Oceanside, and stopped out the intersection between the way home and towards the Kingdom. The map was in her hand as she looked at the woman who had two jawless and armless walkers behind her.
"Mich, there's something I need to give you." She said, holding out the map.
"What is this?" Michonne asked, opening up the map with one hand.
Alice swallowed, harshly. "That's a map...to Rick's and Matilda's location."
The woman looked up at her with wide eyes. "What—what do you mean?"
Then the redhead proceeded to tell the events of her life when she meet Rick and Matilda, and how she took Max and Cassie to Philly in order to bring them back, but Tilly had a change of plans.
She explained that Tilly and Rick had to stay and do something that neither she or Max, or Cassidy knew. As she then explained how she, Max, and Cassie gave everyone false story, how they left out the part where they talked with Tilly and Rick.
When Alice finished, she looked at Michonne, who looked in a state of shock and looked ready to collapse.
"They're alive, Mich. And whatever they doing, I feel like they need help. That map will lead you to an apartment, it's not their exact location, but it's close."
"Who the hell is the CRM?" Michonne asked.
Alice quickly explained everything she knows about them. "I don't exactly where the CRM lives but near the apartment. Use it for a safe house, or something, while you find them. I'm sorry, Mich. We wanted to you, and Daryl, but we thought it was best not to."
Michonne let out a shaky breath and collapsed the teen into her arms. "Thank you...for this."
"Bring them back home, Mich. Not just for our family, but for Judith, RJ, Max, Carl, Cassie, and Daryl." Alice whispered. "Especially Daryl."
"I will." The woman says as they pull away. "Take of my kids. See you when I get back."
Alice watched as the woman walked away, holding the map tightly in her hand. "See you when you get back."