❝ 𝖢𝖠𝖭'𝖳 𝖢𝖮𝖬𝖬𝖨𝖳 𝖳𝖮 𝖠 𝖳𝖧𝖨𝖭𝖦, 𝖡𝖤 𝖨𝖳
𝖧𝖤𝖠𝖱𝖳 𝖮𝖱 𝖧𝖮𝖲𝖯𝖨𝖳𝖠𝖫 . ❞
it had been a long time since ross saw anyone living on the cold and harsh roads of georgia.
he'd just been walking aimlessly since his mom finally kicked the bucket, and he'd been separated from everyone in the chaos of what happened in the place they'd been staying at.
see, ross' mother was sick before the shit hit the fan. they'd been lucky enough to get stuck with a group in a medical center when it all happened, and she'd only become bedridden few months ago.
when the dead finally broke through their barricades, ross knew his mother couldn't break out with him. but he couldn't leave her to be torn apart.
he did what he had to.
he barely made it out with a backpack full of as many supplies as he could grab, running as far from the site as possible. he stopped running eventually, in the literal sense, but he never really stopped running.
he'd been wandering, scavenging, and killing the dead since that day a couple of weeks ago, just doing his best.
but with the harsh conditions and cold realities he was forced to think of, faced with nothing but dead silence of the woods to hold him in his travels, he was held together by mere safety pins of his father's old affirmations.
ross sighs as he slings his backpack down in front of him, tired from walking for most of the day. it was somewhere past noon from what the sun told him, and he digs into the pile of things in his bag, hoping that there was something of sustenance left.
"fuck," he mutters when he only sees about a half of a can of some vegetable that he didn't bother to read the label of, his shoulders dropping when he realizes he's at the end of his prolonged fate.
he has little food, no water, no bullets left, and one dulling knife.
he refuses to let the tears well in his eyes. it's not worth it to cry anymore, he knew he'd be met with this eventually.
he slings his bag back over his shoulder and continues his walk down the same, gravelly road he'd been walking for days.
he stares at his feet during his walk, not bothering to look up for too long. there was hardly any walkers out this far.
eventually, the gravel under his feet turned to a dirt road, shocking ross back into a state of awareness. he looks up and sees a prison in the far distance, sitting almost peacefully. huh, ironic.
"holy shit," he scoffs, shaking his head at his discovery, speedily walking towards the gate, ignoring his persistent lightheadedness. he walks directly up to the gate, noticing the emptiness of the place.
he cups his mouth around his hands, shouting a "HELLO!" and hoping he would see someone, something, literally anything.
he's about to yell again when he realizes it wasn't worth the risk and his blood runs cold. if there was anyone there, they probably didn't want him in there either.
ross drops to his knees, giving in to all of his urges to just give up, letting himself sink down into his fear. he couldn't possibly go on alone for much longer.
he slumps on his side, before falling on his back to look up at the sky. he was going to die right here— he was going to let himself die right here, in front of a prison gate. his eyes flutter closed, realistically due to exhaustion and dehydration, and the last thing he thought about was if he would see his mom and zoe again.
—
rick and daryl were walking the newly-discovered prisoners around the courtyard, letting them see what had become of the world when they heard it— a scream, someone just outside the gate trying to garner attention.
"d'you hear that?" daryl asked, while t-dog got closer to the gate to see what it was, rick not far behind while daryl kept his crossbow trained on the prisoners.
t-dog clicks his tongue and turns back to rick, "shit, that's gotta be a kid," he's about to start speaking again when rick cuts him off, already knowing what he was going to say.
"shit, that's— i know that kid, oh my god," he mumbles, putting a hand over his mouth. "t-dog come with me, we gotta get to him before the walkers do."
rick takes off for the gate, the other man not far behind, quickly dragging the unconscious boy behind the safety of their walls. he checks for a pulse, saying a silent 'thank god' when he's still alive and scans him for injuries.
"okay, he's not infected and still breathin' i gotta get him into our block," rick quickly picks him up, ignoring the struggle it is given the boy's height.
"who the hell is this kid, rick?" t-dog asks as he pulls the gate closed and locks it, following behind rick as they get stares from the prisoners, and a confused look from daryl.
rick only huffs out an answer once they're back in the courtyard, "this is my nephew— on lori's side, ross." he yells for said woman once they're inside the cell block, cursing when he realizes just how messy everything has become— hershel, the prisoners, and now the appearance of ross.
"rick, what is it now- oh my god is that ross?" lori gasps, and rick takes in her shock at the sight of her sister's son.
"he was just- he was just at the gate. just standin' there," he explains and sets him down on a bed and pressing his hands against the top of his head. "he's breathing and all, no injuries, just.. clocked out."
lori lets out a small laugh, shaking her head slightly. "i'll be damned, i knew that kid had some kind of fire in him,"
rick smiles back, letting himself take this one win in the chaos around him. "yeah, just like his mom and aunt, huh?" he jokes with lori before realizing he needed to get back to the courtyard and deal with the problem the prisoners had presented.
"can you make sure carl is in here when he wakes up, 'n give him some water? a familiar face would probably be best," he waits for lori to nod before rushing off to where he was needed.
he only hoped that when the boy awoke, there would be something good he could tell them.
—
ross doesn't realize he was actually alive when he first came to. he opens his eyes to a scribbled on, dirty surface above him.
is this my heaven-supplied coffin? he coughed, before he turns to see himself inside of some type of cell. it doesn't click until a few seconds later that he's inside the prison he'd found.
he squeezes his eyes together repeatedly, sitting up and looking around until his eyes focused on a familiar figure.
"holy shit- where am i?" he mumbles as his eyes fully focused and recognized who was sitting on the bed across from him. "carl? is that you?"
"ross!" carl exclaims and jumps towards him, engulfing him in a hug. of course, he hugged back, but his mind could only wonder to the millions of questions he had. how did he get inside? who was carl with? there was no way a 12 year old was roaming free inside a prison this large, nor got inside it himself.
"i'm so glad you're safe," he tells carl when they separate, taking the water the boy handed to him and practically downing it in one go. "where's your mom and dad? are there others?"
"they're both here, and safe. and yes, there's a lot of others, but they're good people. there's just a lot happening right now." carl replies to his questions.
as ross stands up, he takes a second to look down at carl and realizes just how matured he was. the last time he saw carl was at a family party almost a year ago. his hair was longer, he carried a gun.. it was almost a completely different person.
when he realizes lori is here, the dread dawned on him of having to tell her the news. he took in a shaky breath, trying to hide it from carl as he pushed his hair back. "can you take me to your parents?"
carl nods, leading him to a cell down a ways from the one they were in, a larger group of people gathered around it. a man and a woman looked at him strangely, and ross prayed that someone had explained who he was. "mom, he's up," carl's words snap him out of his thoughts.
lori comes out of the cell, smiling tearfully and grabbing ross, hugging him tight. "oh baby, i'm so glad you're safe," she squeezes him, ross laughing softly and hugging her back while being careful of her bump.
"hi lori, quite a lot has changed since i last saw you guys, huh?" he laughs lightly once she let go. he was truly glad to see her alive, as he'd always been close with her and rick, dropping the 'aunt' and 'uncle' titles once he was 16– he was practically always at the grimes residence babysitting carl before all of this.
"you've grown. seriously," she messes with his hair, making him tsk and slap her hand away gently. "oh come on, it's not like you styled it!"
"whatever," he rolls his eyes with a smile, before looking inside the cell, and his face instantly drops. "what happened to his...?"
"he was bit. rick did what he had to," lori says quietly, pulling him away from the scene. there was one woman tending to his wound while two girls who he assumed were family simply watched tearfully.
once they were a good distance away, lori stops and looks at ross with a solemn expression on her face. "is your mom alive?" she asks, her eyes begging for the 'yes' that ross couldn't give her.
he swallowed the lump in his throat before he began to explain the past couple of months. "she was sick before all of this. when the center got overrun, there was no way she would have made it out. she was food for the dead. i did what i had to, i..." his voice breaks, and lori pulls him into a hug, the pair embracing in their tears. ross feeling the grief of a death he'd already mourned. he truly never thought he'd have any family left to tell about this.
their conversation is cut short when the gated door creaks open, rick and a man that ross didn't know piling in with a large amount of food. lori quickly walks over to them, ross following in tow.
"any change?" rick asks lori, motioning his head towards the man lying on the bed.
"bleeding is under control and no fever, but his breath is labored and his pulse is way down and he hasn't opened his eyes yet." lori informs, before rick instructs another man to cuff the dying one to the bed. a precaution, ross guessed.
ross leans against the wall as lori and rick continue to have a conversation about something that seemed important. he was incredibly confused on what was happening here, with how out of control everything was. all he knew was that the grimes family was alive and doing somewhat well.
he decides to walk towards the group of people packed near the one cell, staring inside as he settles next to carl.
"are you related to them?" someone asks him, and his head darts up to see the other younger man he'd seen cuff the guy without a leg.
he nods. "i'm ross— ross bower, lori's sister was my mom," he explains, still concerned with the state of... well, everything.
"i'm glad you're not a stranger. if rick trusts you then we pretty much all do. i'm glenn," he introduces himself. "the man on the bed is hershel, and the woman tending to his wounds is carol. the blonde is beth, and the brunette there is.. maggie, my girlfriend. those two are his daughters,"
ross nods, not bothering to introduce himself to the group yet. the air was tense with the debate of whether or not hershel would survive. he really felt for them. seeing a parent dying, feeling helpless... it's one of the worst feelings in the world.
"i haven't seen a group in a while, you know," ross spoke. not once in weeks since he'd left had he seen a person, actually.
"we haven't either. i can't decide if it's more terrifying or relieving," glenn responds with a heavy look in his face.
"why terrifying?" ross questions.
"people aren't what they were before."
—
rick was out dealing with the unknown (to ross) issue for the entire day, and ross persistently kept to himself. he heard carl get yelled at for wandering off, and watched the tearful waking-up of hershel from a distance, not wanting to get in the way.
after all was said and done and the dust had settled, the group gathered in the area full of tables with their newly gained food, eating together with the exception of hershel and carol, who was keeping an eye on him.
ross was still sitting farther away from the rest of the group, bur closest to carl and lori. rick approaches him, motioning for him to come sit with everyone else.
"guys, this is ross, my nephew. he'll stay with us now, he's family." rick announces to the group, before handing him some food and sitting down, ross doing the same.
"so, how old are you ross?" one of the girls he'd been introduced to earlier, beth, asks him.
ross clears his throat, "uh, 17.. no, wait i think i just turned 18. i actually have been keeping up with a calendar this whole time." he smiles, looking around at the group.
"actually? how'd you even remember?" t-dog asks, a couple of people now intrigued by his statement.
"well i didn't at first. after a month or two, i realized i should start doing it, and i just counted back to figure out what day it was and kept counting, i drew a little calendar in my notebook, wait.." he pulls the small thing out of his pocket, flipping through it quickly. "today is actually a wednesday."
"i'm glad you're just as strange as i remembered you, son." rick claps him on the back, teasing him with a soft smile when ross looks up at him in bewilderment.
"it's not strange! it keeps you sane, ya'know," he goes back to eating, people laughing at their exchange.
"your families must have been really close before everything, huh?" maggie asks.
"yeah. well i mean, i was practically always at the grimes estate. we lived so close so i always babysat carl, practically made the guest bedroom into my own," he recalls the bedroom filled with his own items. he almost always went straight there after school to watch carl.
"it was like havin' a temporary brother," carl jokes, making ross roll his eyes and shove the other.
"brothers from biologically similar mothers," ross corrects, reminding carl of the saying that they made up a couple of years back.
"definitely act like 'em," daryl supplies, shrugging.
the group chattered on about various topics, somehow brushing away the horrors of the day for an exchange during the night. it was amazing to ross.
they were like their own, home-made family. he only hoped he could find a place he fit in with it all.
—
A/N: ahhh!! first chapter done :P hope u guys like it <3 not being too careful ab canon compliance etc bc i am writing a work of.. fiction 😁