can't force that on someone
( season four , episode eleven )
the car ride after was thankfully not as awkward, though it was still filled with uncomfortable silence. that didn't stop kaia from singing random songs her mother taught her.
"so i tuck you in, turn your favorite nightlight on," the young girl hummed, making her mothers lip curl upwards, "to you everything's funny."
noticing movement in the corner of her eye, layna looked over and noticed the man with them had finally woken up. he was looking around confusedly, not that she could blame him.
"hey, don't move," tara reached her arm out, putting her hand on his shoulder to stop his movements. she grabbed a bottle next to her and started opening it, "here's some water."
"where are we?" he questioned, his voice was slightly hoarse from just waking up.
"i don't know," tara sighed, "we were fighting biters and you passed out right after we left the prison. i didn't know what to do."
the man was now pushing himself up frantically, and noticed two random girls watching him curiously. "who are you?"
"layna."
"kaia"
he stared at them confusedly until his face lit up like he remembered something, he snapped his head over to tara and started frantically questioning her, "did we pass a bus? on the road, did we pass a bus?"
"yeah." all three girls answered, making him look at each of them individually before he looked to the girl he trusted most.
"what did you see?" he asked, only getting a nervous stare in return. this did nothing to ease his mind, and he started getting louder, "what did you see?!"
tara looked back and forth, not wanting to make eye contact with him.
"they were all dead," the blonde answered for her, knowing the situation would only get worse with silence.
the korean turned his body to now face layna, deciding he'd get better answers from her, "how long since we passed it?"
"three hours? maybe?"
the man's face blanked while his head started tilting downwards, then turned around to tap on the truck window, trying to get the attention of the three in front, "hey. hey! stop the truck!"
the only answer he got was a middle finger, making him bang even harder, getting desperate.
"hey! numbnuts," tara joined him, also slamming her fists against the window "stop the truck!"
feeling a small flinch beside her, she looked down to see her daughter's body curling into her while holding her hands over her ears. she sighed and lifted kaia onto her lap, leaning her head against her chest. gently lifting her tiny hands, she replaced them with her own.
while she was attempting to comfort her daughter, the truck had slowed to a stop. the two people in front of her stood up, making their way to the end of the truck. they both looked at her, and she glared in return while massaging her daughters head with the hand that had been previously covering her ear.
"where the hell are you going?" abraham angrily stated, following tara and glenn with rosita behind him, "where the hell is he going?"
the only response he got was silence. they all continued walking while he started to talk again, "i don't know what your lady friends told you about the special nature of the mission we're on, but this shit is time-sensitive and we're already way behind schedule. so i need you to turn your ass around and get back in the truck"
having heard the same speech over and over again, layna threw her head back groaning. she wished she had the guts to do what her new friends were doing, but she didn't have it in her to leave rosita again.
"oh my god, just let them go."
"thank you," glenn turned and showed his gratitude to layna, then turned back around to face abraham who was now standing in front of him, "i gotta go."
"layna, stay out of this. it seems like neither one of you's been paying close enough attention to the hell on earth we've been living in."
the blonde girl in the truck scrunched her face up. if anything, it seemed they'd been paying more attention than anyone else here.
"so let me tell you how to best avoid winding up just another dead-alive prick." abraham looked around, before laying his eyes back on glenn and pointed at him, "you find some strong, like-minded comrades and you stay stuck together like wet on water. we need people."
"you can't force that on someone, abraham." layna had now started walking off of the truck, telling her daughter to stay in the truck.
abraham gave her a look, but didn't respond. "the more the better. we need each other, partner. even with all that gear on your shoulder, you won't last a night. not by yourself."
"i'll take my chances."
"i'm gonna have to insist-" abraham pushed glenn back with a hand on his chest, "that you hold the hell up. all right, believe it or not, the fate of the entire damn human race might depend on it."
rolling her eyes, layna leaned against the truck. she had never believed in the cure, it didn't sound real. besides, the world was too far gone to bring it back.
glenn stared at abraham angrily before slapping his hand away, "what the hell are you talking about? who is this guy?"
"i'm sergeant abraham ford. and these are my companions rosita espinosa, dr. eugene porter, layna beckett, and lil' kaia beckett. we're on a mission to get eugene to washington, d.c. eugene's a scientist and he knows exactly what caused this mess."
glenn stared at everyone around him with a blank face. he pulled a hand through his jet-black hair, "all right. so what happened?"
"it's classified." eugene spoke up.
"he'd been talking to the muckety-mucks in washington on his satellite phone. the past couple weeks, nobody's been picking up on the other end. we saw how you handled those corpses back there."
throwing her head back, layna rubbed her head feeling a headache coming. she had listened to the same bullshit for years and it never made sense to her. she'd much rather lock her daughter and herself in a cabin for the rest of their lives than chase after a fake cure.
"we could use your help."
"sorry." glenn walked passed abraham, rosita had a look of annoyance on her face watching him go. she turned her head over to her best friend expecting to see something similar, but she looked like she expected this. tara followed glenn, and abraham walked towards them quickly with rosita behind him.
as they got farther and farther away, layna could no longer hear them. not that she was complaining, they were starting to give her a headache. that didn't stop her from watching though.
she watched as glenn slowed to a stop, and raised her eyebrows surprised, not thinking he would join them after putting up a fight. that look of surprise quickly formed into shock and she watched him turn around and punch abraham in the face.
"holy shit!" layna laughed, "didn't think he had it in him."
"well statistically speaking-"
"shut up eugene."
as eugene nodded to layna, abraham got up right back up just as quickly as he fell to the floor, and sprinted towards glenn. tackling him, they both flew to the floor, abraham on top. layna let out an exasperated sigh and started walking toward the group in front of her.
"hey, get off him," the blonde heard as she got closer, "come on!"
"you don't want this, abraham!"
finally getting to the two men fighting on the ground, she watched as abraham started choking glenn making her panic. she threw a kick at abraham's face, successfully throwing him off of glenn and sending him to the floor. "knock it off! god, you're worse than my child."
"what was that for?!" abraham stated angrily, standing up.
layna raised her eyebrows at him, resting her hands on her hips, "are you seriously asking that right now?"
the two continued arguing until gunshots were heard near the truck, making them all frantically stop and turn. layna eyes widened when she saw eugene shooting walkers.
they all sprinted towards the man with the gun, layna slightly in front, her fear for her daughters safety taking over.
"stop firing damn it!"
"mommy!!"
layna jumped into the back of the truck with a thud. quickly making her way to her daughter, she picked her up and jumped back out, covering the small girl's body with her own. her feet were aching from the pain of the fall, but she wasn't focusing on the pain. only her daughter.
as everyone else continued to shoot zombies, layna led her daughter to a safer area, still protecting her shaking daughter with her body covering her smaller form.
when everything finally went silent again, the only thing heard was liquid splattering onto the pavement, and sniffles coming from the young girl still being held by her mother.
abraham walked over to the truck, kneeling down to see what happened. "son of a dick."