WHITE FLAG
chapter fifty-two : 30 days without an accident
{ season four - episode one }
KLOE WOKE UP to the feeling of someone leaving her arms. She opened her eyes, squinting them tightly as the bright sun shined through the windows of the prison.
Her eyes landed on her husband, who rubbed his hand down his face. His jet black hair had gotten longer. Glenn peered over his bare shoulder, feeling his wife's eyes on him.
His hand snaked into hers as he sent her a warm smile. She did the same, brushing a strand of her long hair out of her face. "Are you sure you wanna come today?" he pondered.
She sat upright, her free hand brushing through Glenn's thick hair. "Yes, I'm sure. I'm not gonna not come just because I threw up last night, Glenn."
"Mhm," he hummed, nodding his head. He lifted her hand up with his, pressing soft kisses on her knuckles. "I was just saying if you didn't feel well enough to go, you shouldn't feel like you're being forced to."
"Yeah, I know that," she responded, nodding with a soft smile. "But I feel fine. So I am going." Glenn smiled at her, bringing his lips onto hers. Once they pulled away, Glenn climbed off of their double bed, grabbing onto a shirt that was folded on a chair.
Kloe sighed, examining their room. It had been six months since Woodbury had moved into the prison. Everything was going well. Aside from a certain time thirty days before when they had gone on a run - someone had gotten bit.
It wasn't a good time. But after, it got better. Beth had a small board in her cell a few cells down from the Rhees'. On the board said, 30 days without an accident.
It had been the longest it had been in a while. Kloe finally got out of bed, adjusting her tank top's strap that hung off her shoulder. She grabbed onto her sage green cargo pants.
Once she buttoned them up, she watched her husband exit their cell, a white sheet covering the entrance to it. Overall, the large group in the prison shared C-Block and D-Block. Most people that came in from Woodbury lived in D-Block, while the original prison group and a few other people from Woodbury lived in C-Block.
Before Kloe followed Glenn, she crouched down beside the doorway, scanning the amount of arrows she had in her quiver. Nine. That was enough. She grabbed onto the strap of it, throwing it over her shoulder.
She lastly grasped onto her one and only bow that had lasted with her for the total of living in the apocalypse. She stepped out of the cell, a breeze hitting her skin. Her eyes scanned the room, spotting no one in sight apart from Glenn, who was waiting for her.
"Got everything?" he asked her, adjusting his holster around his thigh.
"Yep," she replied, grabbing onto one of the drop leg holsters. She wrapped it around her thigh, adjusting the tightness of it until it was just right. Glenn held out his hand, the gun she always used sitting within it.
She took it, shoving it inside the holster's pocket. "Daryl put out all the vests out by the car we're leaving in," Glenn informed what he was told the night before.
"Alright. I'm gonna say goodbye to Zayn and Brianna, so you can go and I'll catch you up," she said, pressing a soft kiss on his cheek. He nodded, massaging her shoulder for a second before leaving.
She set her bow string around the same shoulder she had the quiver set on as she followed her husband out of the cell block. They departed, Glenn heading toward the car and Kloe heading toward her siblings.
It didn't take her too long to find the siblings as they were picking at each other's food on their preserved table. The two never heard her coming, so when she set down her knife on the table, the pair jumped out of their skins and stopped chewing.
"Kloe, what the hell!" Brianna exclaimed, her mouth practically full. Kloe sat herself down on the edge of the seat her brother was sitting on, pushing him all the way to the end so she could get some shade.
"Good morning to you too, sis," Kloe leaned forward, stealing a piece of meat from Brianna's plate. "God, this is amazing," she hummed as she swallowed the piece of food.
"Hey, instead of taking our food, why don't you go to that massive load of deer stacked on that table over there, yeah?" Zayn jabbed his finger over to the mentioned food - where Kloe spotted the teenage boy, Patrick.
The smart, polite and tall teenager caught her eyes, and he almost immediately waved at her with an angelic smile on his lips. Kloe forced a smile back, waving briefly over to him.
She faced back toward her older brother, glaring into his eyes. "Sorry, no can do. I don't have time." She grabbed another - rather large - piece of meat from Zayn's plate, shoving it into her mouth at the speed of light.
Before she could get yelled at by her two siblings, she instantaneously hopped off the seat, grasping onto the handle of her knife and jogged away from them.
She laughed as she listened to the pair shout out her name, groaning extremely loud at their plates that had missing pieces.
...
The Big Spot sat there, completely empty, abandoned and forgotten. Despite the fact that there were deserted army tents. Large, tall and protective fences that were around three-and-a-half meters tall were put up around them, making it virtually impossible to climb over. But to their luck - from where some of them had been a few days before - there had been an opening in the fence.
Daryl Dixon brushed his fingers over the chain-link, exasperatedly dropping them back to his waist as he held his crossbow high in his other hand. "Army came and put these fences up." He gazed to the left side of him, looking at Bob - one of the newest members of the group that was suitable for their supply runs - and said, "Made it a place for the people to go. Last week we found this place, there was a bunch of walkers behind this chain-link keeping people out like a bunch of guard dogs.
"So they all just left?" Bob pondered, staring at the old refugee camp that was left to rot just like the many other camps the army had made during the outbreak.
"Give a listen." Sasha's face grew a smirk as the whole group came to a silence. They all stood still, their ears perking up on a loud bass in the distance.
"You drew 'em out," Michonne observed the woman, her hand on her hip as she watched the Williams woman proudly.
Kloe maneuvered her head to face the woman, the same smirk of proudness infiltrating her own lips. "Way to go Sasha freakin' Williams," she shared.
"Put a boombox out there three days ago," Sasha nodded, still majorly proud of herself.
"Hooked it up to two car batteries," Glenn added, meaning he was in on it too.
Isabelle Marshel's eyes flicked between Glenn and Sasha, her large gun sitting tightly in her arms. "How did you guys even come up with that?" The pair just shrugged, not having an exact point to answer. "Beats me..."
"Alright, let's make a sweep," Daryl instructed, ducking through the huge hole in the fence as he spoke. "Make sure it's safe. Grab what you can. We'll come back tomorrow with more people."
Everyone trailed in behind him, shooting their eyes all over the area. Sure, there was a loud bass in the distance, but that didn't mean that some of the walkers got bored and decided to head back to their home. The entire group searched around the refugee camp head-to-toe.
"This is bringing back some vague memories," Vickie Parson muttered beside Kloe, who was following behind everybody else.
The Rhee woman nodded to the dirty blonde woman, coming to a stop as everybody else did. Daryl pressed his back against the rustied up window that was too dirty to reveal the Big Spot's interior.
He knocked his elbow into the strong and sturdy glass four times. He sat down on the bricks that held the window. "Give it a few seconds." They waited for a few seconds - just like he had said.
Zach, the youngest with them since he was only seventeen, started to continue guessing on what Daryl worked as before the fall. He had been guessing for six weeks and still never got it right.
To clarify, Daryl was a hunter. Hence why he was extraordinary at tracking. Kloe chuckled to herself as Vickie joined in on the conversation with a shake of her head. She turned around on her heel, spotting the familiar eighteen-year-old who was without a doubt searching for medical supplies.
Kloe headed over to her, her arrows in her quiver jumping with every step she took. "Hi, Dr. Marshel," she greeted, smiling down at the girl. Isabelle's head snapped upward, her eyes softening after she realized it was Kloe.
"Hey, Mrs. Rhee. Gosh, I really need to get used to that," Isabelle snickered, standing to her feet as she brushed the dirt and grime off her knees.
Kloe laughed, "I'm sure you will one day. Find anything?"
"Yes, in fact..." she brought her backpack to the front of her, opening it as she rummaged her hand through it. She gripped onto something, pulling it out. Kloe's brows fixed together at the sight of nothing in the girl's hand. "Air. I found air."
Kloe rolled her eyes deeply, slumping her shoulders at Isabelle's sarcasm. "Get out of here." She gently pushed Isabelle's arm, earning a giggle from her. "Let's go."
The two women stumbled over to the entrance of the Big Spot where Daryl called them over. Their eyes caught onto the walkers that strived to reach for them through the window.
Vickie and Tyreese had gone in after Daryl broke down the glass doors that used to be automatic. They both dragged out the two walkers that were waiting to gnaw on them - but failed.
"Alright, we go in, stay in formation for the sweep. After that, you all know what you're supposed to look for," Sasha ordered, her eyes falling over everyone who watched her. "Any questions?"
With that, everyone piled inside the big store. Kloe's eyes broadened with astonishment. The store seemed so much bigger inside than it did outside. The whole group stood still with amazement just like she had.
A smile entered her lips when a recognizable item caught her eyes. Kloe paced forward ahead of the group, extending out her arms as she reached for the blue bars of a shopping cart.
"Time to go on a shopping spree, losers," Kloe sang, sliding her sneakers across the somewhat slippery ground along with the shopping cart that was in her possession. She grabbed onto a pack of strawberry twisters, throwing them into the cart.
Everyone behind her chorted, watching her with pure amusement as she swerved the cart sideways before it could crash into one of the shelves. Daryl shook his head, his own grin dancing on his lips, "Child to heart."
The group grabbed onto their own individual shopping cart, going in their own desired aisle. Except for Glenn, who followed his wife. He joined her side, placing his hand on her shoulder that was covered with the protective armor from the prison that he insisted she'd wear.
They went through the canned foods section, throwing anything they saw useful into the cart as they walked past it. Glenn took control of the shopping cart, Kloe holding onto the side of it as she walked the same speed as he pushed it.
After collecting everything they were told to get, they strolled down the aisles looking for things that could be worth taking for their own entertainment.
"Where to look first..." Kloe thought out loud to herself, peeking over her shoulder to look at her husband, assuming he had heard her. Which he did.
"We could go down the electronics aisle?" he suggested innocently, pointing down the specific aisle beside them. Kloe somewhat pushed the slightly full shopping cart so it faced it
"Looking for something in particular?" she wondered, watching Glenn with one raised eyebrow. As they walked down the aisle, the only things that came to Kloe's eyes were things you had to plug into outlets - which they never had in the prison.
There was no electricity whatsoever in the prison - so getting something like a TV would be purely impractical. Glenn shrugged, unsure. "I'm not sure. Just gonna have a look around," he replied, his dark brown eyes scanning over everything on the shelves.
Something drew his attention - something that made him rest his flashlight on the shelf. Kloe's head veered over to what Glenn was staring at, causing her to smile.
He picked up a polaroid camera; one that had a rather large flash. He held it in his palms as he ran his eyes over it. Kloe grinned, throwing a bundle of AAA batteries into the cart, along with some other batteries in different sizes.
Glenn's eyes lifted up, landing on something that was least expected for Kloe. She frowned as she watched Glenn walk away from her and the cart with the flashlight.
She dropped one more pack of batteries into the cart before following him, tracing his steps. She stopped in her tracks when she noticed he had stopped in front of a poster.
A poster filled with pictures of babies.
Kloe's shoulders dropped as she took a few steps forward to join her husband's side. "So that's why you were worried about me throwing up last night," she observed, nodding in realization. "I only threw up once though."
"What about the other times?" Glenn inquired, turning his body to face his wife, "You threw up three times last week."
"Hey." She grasped onto his hands, her fingerless leather gloves keeping them in her grip. "Stop worrying. I'm sure it's just the food I've been eating," she said sympathetically, rubbing circles on the back of Glenn's hand. The pair sat in silence for a moment, before Kloe's mind came up with an idea. "Hey, to be sure, I'll get a test, okay?"
He nodded, swallowing thickly. Kloe muttered out another 'okay' before dropping his hands, brushing past him as she headed toward the hygiene section - a section her and Glenn had already walked through.
As she turned the corner to the aisle, she noticed Isabelle searching through some of the medicines and other medical supplies. Kloe silently sighed, treading through the aisle as she scanned the shelves.
Once her eyes landed on the tests, she slyly slid a pack off the shelf, holding it in her hands as she stared at the pregnancy tests. She gulped. What if she was? What if it wasn't the food?
Shaking away her thoughts, she shoved it deep inside her back pocket. While she did so, a loud crash came from the center of the store, along with glass smashing.
Kloe flinched, spinning on her heel to the direction it came from. Isabelle did the same, who was at the other end of the aisle. Then, a loud yell of fear from Bob was next. And lastly came the loudest clash - which was the entire damn aisle.
The two women in the same aisle shared a glance at each other before rushing over to where the piercing boom had come from. Fortunately, the hygiene section was right behind the scene.
Kloe came to an immediate stop as she eyed Daryl kneeling down, shining his flashlight through the gap. "You alright?" he questioned, "You cut or something?"
"No, man," Bob replied from under the big wooden case that was now fully empty of alcohol, "but my foot is caught."
"Alright." Daryl stood back up, swerving his head to the side to face the individuals behind him. "He's just caught. Come on, help me up," he told Zach and Tyreese, who both gripped onto either side of the wooden case.
Kloe's entire body froze, her chin slowly lifting up above them. A speck of dust fell down from the ceiling... then another... then another. Something was up there.
"What happened?!" Glenn yelled from one side of the store.
"Everyone's alright!" Zach shouted back to him, "We're over in wine and beer!" The three men elevated the wooden case, putting it back into its original position.
"I was moving fast, man. I drove right into the drinks," Bob breathlessly chuckled in an apologetic tone. Kloe still stared straight up at the ceiling above them, wary from what was up above.
"Man, you lucked out," Tyreese panted, "If this thing had come down on you the wrong way..."
"Guys..." Kloe started, the group turning to face her. "I really think we should move-" The ceiling just a few centimeters away from her came through, a walker falling straight through it.
Thankfully, it was tangled up in all sorts of wiring. Kloe took several steps back, wiping away the dirt that fell onto the top of her head. The other members of the small group came around the corner, immediately stopping the moment they saw the walker dangling.
"Yeah, uh, we should probably go now," Glenn nervously suggested, pointing out the obvious.
"Bob's still stuck. Get him out of there," Daryl ordered Tyreese and Zach, but the duo stood completely still, shocked at what had just happened. Walkers were falling through the ceiling.
Kloe felt the well-known fingers wrap around her protected upper-arm, pulling her away from the numerous walkers that began to tumble through. From everywhere in the store, walkers crashed through.
Glenn released his grasp on his wife's arm, allowing her to back away from the walkers. While she continued backing away, a walker came down beside her.
Anxiously, she reached down for her knife - but before she could grab onto anything, the walker had gotten up and pushed its body against hers. Her back harshly hit the shelf behind her, knocking everything off.
She grunted, pushing her protected arm against the neck of the walker, stopping it from ripping a chunk of flesh out of her. Glenn instantly rushed to her aid, however he was cut short when a walker pushed him down to the ground.
Watching her husband struggle, she attempted to wriggle her way out of the walker's arms, although the walker's force and body weight refrained her from doing so.
She had to go back to plan A. She hesitantly released the walker with an arm, battling its strength with just one. Her hand snaked down to her belt, which held her knife.
She wrapped her fingers around the accustomed knife handle, pulling it straight out. She plunged it through the walker's skull, the loud snarls coming to an end as it dropped to the ground lifelessly.
She breathed heavily, her chocolate brown eyes falling onto another walker that had a sturdy hold of Glenn's leg. Without hesitation, she walked forward, raising her knife high. She brought the knife down with force, grunting as it went clean through the walker's brain.
Glenn, who was amidst reaching for his gun, managed to get to it and proceeded to repeatedly bash the bottom part of the gun against the head of the walker that had fallen on top of him.
Kloe extended out her hand, offering it to him. He took it, pulling himself up. "You okay?" he asked, worried.
She nodded continuously, "I'm fine." Her head spun toward the walker that was currently stumbling its way over to them. While Glenn reloaded his gun, Kloe pulled hers out of her holster and directed it at the walker's head.
She pulled the trigger, the walker's growls stopping within an instant. The sound of Bob's yells caught Kloe's attention. "We gotta get to Bob," she reminded, not taking a second to race over to where he was.
Glenn didn't hesitate to follow her, shooting down any walker that reached out its bony fingers for either him or his wife. Cutting him off from her, a walker wrapped its arm around Kloe's shoulder.
She grabbed onto the arm, spinning around so the walker was against her back. She ducked down, the heel of her foot kicking the walker's leg up, causing it to fly over her, its back hitting harshly against the ground.
She stood back up, blowing a strand of hair out of her face as she put the walker to rest. Her head shot over to the wooden case that Bob was still under, Daryl on a stack of beer boxes, refraining the walkers from getting to him.
Dashing forward, a strong crash formed above her. Glenn, who had rejoined her side as she looked up, making him do the same. His breath caught into his throat as he watched a partially destroyed army helicopter start to fall through the wrecked ceiling.
"Fuck!" Kloe shouted, taking numerous steps back once again. "Daryl, go!" she yelled over to the Dixon man, aiming her gun at the walkers surrounding him while Glenn shot down the walkers that tried to reach for them.
Once he was in the clear, Daryl jumped down, joining Glenn and Kloe's side. Before a walker could grab onto Daryl, Zach shot it down. "Let's get Bob!" he shouted, shooting a bullet through another walker's head.
Both him and Daryl leaped forward for the wooden case. Glenn and Kloe stayed back, their eyes fixed on the commotion that was happening above them.
"Come on! Let's go!" Glenn yelled once Bob was up on his feet. Just as they were prepared to bolt it for the door before the helicopter could crash onto them, a blood-curdling scream ripped through the air.
Their heads snapped over to the youngest of the group, Zach, who had a chunk of his leg bitten out of him. He fell forward as he continued to yell, being pulled under the same case Bob was previously under.
"Zach!" Glenn shouted, his eyes filling with shock as the walker bit deep into Zach's neck.
"No!" Isabelle shrieked, seeing one of her closest friends get ripped away from her. Daryl ushered the group out of the store as he knew there was no point saving Zach. He was gone either way.
Not budging, Isabelle stared down at her friend who began to choke on his own blood. Kloe grasped tightly onto Isabelle's arm, pulling her along as they raced to the door.
With a booming, thunderous crash, the helicopter fell through the ceiling. They made it out just in time before anyone else could die.
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words: 3818
19th november 2022
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can you guys tell i have nothing else to do atm? LMAO