CHAPTER SIXTEEN !
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IN THE MORNING, ESTELLA ate some of the regular oatmeal they had in the mornings. instead of eating it at the table where tyreese and the others were, she ate it in her cell. carl and issy were sat there, too. they were a game of chess on the floor. estella sat on the bed, watching both of them as she ate her oatmeal and read a book. daryl and the others still weren't back. she was worried about them now.
she tried not to think about it too much, she knew that daryl could handle himself. he was daryl dixon, there was nothing that could take him out other than himself.
she finished up her oatmeal, putting the bowl down at the side of her and bringing the book up closer to her face. she moved so she was laid on her back, book in the air and her socks hitting the bars of the top bunk. she let out a sigh, closing the book and turning on her stomach so she was looking at isabella and carl, still playing chess.
"i'm so bored." she said, "if i'd have known we'd be stuck here, this bored, i'd have chosen better games."
"should've got a monopoly." isabella huffed, putting down her chess piece.
"that's what i'm gonna do when all of them get back, force them to go out and get us better games." estella said.
carl nodded, "sounds like a good idea. let's go downstairs, we will see if we can help hershal with anything."
the three of them walked down the stairs and into the other room where everyone was. hershal had the man that estella didn't know the name of, laid down as he stitched him up. sasha and tyreese sat together on a table, and the boy, ben, sat in the corner looking like he didn't want to be there.
axel was getting some food, carol was on watch outside. beth was in one of the cell blocks with judith, doing whatever she did nowadays - be a mother and all that.
"you can take those stitches out yourself in a week or so." hershal said to the man as he wrapped his leg.
"thank you." the man nodded.
"pretty nice having medical training." tyreese said, as isabella, estella and carl all went to sit on one of the benches.
"it'll only get ya so far." hershal responded.
"you were bit?" tyreese asked.
"he got bit in the leg by a walker, it was so gross. rick had to cut it off so he could live. i'm glad he did it, though." estella said, making hershal slightly laugh and ruffle her hair.
before anyone could say anything, beth walked through with judith in her arms. tyreese and sasha looked at each other with confusion on their faces as they stood up. isabella stood up protectively, walking over to her baby sister, her hand gripping the knife in her waistband, just in case.
"how old is the baby?" sasha asked.
"barely a week. if you hurt her, just know that i won't hesitate to kill you." isabella said, making their eyes widen.
"we're not going to hurt her, sweetheart." tyreese reassured.
"okay." isabella said with a simple nod, sitting down, but closer to beth and judith this time.
"to be honest, we never thought we'd see another baby." sasha said as she walked closer to beth and judith. "beautiful."
"thanks." beth replied.
"how are you feeling?" sasha asked.
"she's- she's not mine." beth said.
"where's the mother?" she questioned.
"our mom died giving birth to her." isabella said, pointing to carl. "she's not around anymore. beth takes care of her."
"i'm sorry." sasha frowned.
"man, you people have been through the mill." tyreese said.
"haven't we all." hershal commented, standing up as he got his medical supplies off the table, putting them away.
"it's only getting worse out there. dead are everywhere, and it's only making the living less like the living." he said.
"you're the only decent folks we've come across." sasha said.
"you've been out there all this time?" estella questioned.
"our neighbour, jerry, he was one of those survivalist nuts. everybody on the block thought he was crazy, always preparing for the end of the world." tyreese explained.
"who knew?" hershal asked, shaking his head.
"jerry knew." isabella said back.
"that's right. he had a bunker under his shed in the back yard, sasha and i stayed there until we ran out of supplies. allen and ben were the first two people we ran into when we finally crawled out of that hole around jacksonville. used to be a bunch of us. 25 at one point." tyreese said.
"our camp was overrun. six, seven weeks ago." sasha added.
"and- and donna, she uh-"
"we'll see that she has a proper burial." hershal said.
"i appreciate you taking care of us. for a while, we didn't know who we were dealing with. just a kid in a cowboy hat holding a gun, and a tiny curly girl with a mean glare." tyreese said, making carl and estella giggle together on the bench.
"neither did we. we've had our problems with people." carl said, the first word he'd said since he came down.
tyreese laughed a little at himself before cracking a joke. "i must be the first brother in history to break into prison."
"makes me the first white boy that didn't want to break out." axel said, making them laugh as he handed them some food.
"tyreese?" hershal said, making tyreese look at him. "like i said, we have a much larger group. a close knit group. i wouldn't get too comfortable here."
"hershal, we can't just kick them out." estella frowned.
"we wouldn't be a problem." tyreese responded as they stood.
"it's not up to me." hershal replied.
"then who?" tyreese asked. "please, you can see why type of people we are."
they all just walked out of the room, back into the cell block. estella didn't know why they couldn't just help people. tyreese and his friends were clearly good people, and she didn't want them to go back outside into the dark world where they would most likely die. she wanted them to stay.
but again, she knew that whatever she said didn't have an effect on the choices that were going to be made anyway. she could say anything, the smartest thing in the world, and the group still wouldn't take it into consideration.
because she was just a little girl. little girls didn't get inputs in these types of situations. adults made the decisions, even in the end of the world.
✧.*
daryl and the others were finally out of woodbury after quite the scene. daryl had reunited with his older brother, merle, who had already caused a bunch of arguments and got hit in the head by the butt of rick's gun and knocked out just so that everyone could have a couple minutes of peace.
michonne was stood by the car, far away from where they all were, debating on if they were going to bring merle and michonne back to the prison. everyone had mixed opinions - daryl being the only one that disagreed with the fact that merle wasn't allowed to come back to the prison with them.
"it won't work." rick said, shaking his head.
"it's gotta." daryl responded.
"it'll stir things up." rick replied, having none of it.
daryl huffed. "look, the governor is probably on his way to the prison right now. merle knows how he thinks, and we could use the muscle."
"i'm not having him at the prison." maggie said, calmly.
"he had a gun to our heads. do you really want him sleeping in the same cell block as carol or beth?" glenn asked.
"he ain't a rapist." daryl argued.
"yeah, well his buddy is." glenn argued back.
"they're not buddies anymore, not after last night."
"there's no way merle's gonna live there without putting every one at each others throats."
"so you're gonna cut merle loose and bring the last samurai home with us?"
"she's not coming back."
"she's not in a state to be on her own."
"she did bring you guys to us."
"and then ditched us."
"at least let my dad stitch her up."
"she's too unpredictable."
"that's right. we don't know who she is. but merle, merle's blood."
"no, merle is your blood. my blood, my family is standing right here, and waiting for us back at the prison." glenn said.
"and you're part of that family, but he's not, he's not." rick added on.
"man, y'all don't know." daryl said, angrily. "fine. we'll fend for ourselves."
"that's not what i was saying." glenn huffed.
"no him, no me." he responded.
"daryl, you don't have to do that." maggie said.
"it was always merle and i before this." he said back.
"don't." she pleaded.
"you serious? you're just gonna leave like that?" glenn asked.
"you'd do the same thing." daryl said, as merle came over.
"what do you want us to tell carol?" glenn asked.
"she'll understand." daryl replied. he began to walk away, and turned to maggie. "say goodbye to your pop for me."
"daryl! are you serious? daryl!" glenn went after him.
rick ran to catch up with him. "hey, hey. there's gotta be another way."
"don't ask me to leave 'im." daryl shrugged. "i already did that once.
"we started something last night. you realise that, huh?"
"no him, no me, that's all i can say. take care of yourself. take care of lil ass kicker, carl, issy, they're tough kids."
"what do you want me to tell estella, your kid?" rick yelled after him, making daryl stop in his tracks.
merle looked extremely confused.
"just tell her that i found my brother and he isn't allowed to come back with me, so i went with him. she'll understand."
merle and daryl walked away, and merle spoke the most shit that daryl had ever had blabbed in his ear since he saw him for the last time. he was already regretting his choice, but like he said, merle was his family. his blood. he wasn't going to leave his brother when he'd just got him back.
"so, this estella, is she really your kid?" merle asked, "did ya have some sorta kid i ain't ever heard of?"
"no. i found her last year after we left the atlanta camp. her parents had left her, dad came out of a barn as a walker. i just got stuck with her, 'cause she didn't trust nobody else, but for some reason trusted me. i looked after her." daryl shrugged.
"hold up. estella. that name sounds hella familiar. she annalise's kid?" merle furrowed his eyebrows.
"yeah. annalise is back at the prison handcuffed in a cell. said some horrible shit to estella. what'd you know about annalise?" daryl asked.
merle just laughed. "what don't i know about annalise, baby bro."
"hell's that supposed to mean?" he asked.
"damn, man. y'all really don't know. annalise is the governer's damn bitch. runs around for him like a mouse runnin' for cheese. sleeps with 'er, drops 'er. she don't care, though. woman will do anything he says. she's tied to his hip, little brotha. ya got 'er? ya got some serious shot on yer back." merle replied.
"ya think she'll be a threat?" daryl asked.
"to the assholes in the prison? yeah. the bitch is real sneaky, she's probably gonna get your damn kid n' take 'er back to woodbury for whatever reason. do whatever to 'er. then she's gon' tell the governor every little damn thing she's found out about yer group. but that don't affect you no more, 'cause you ain't with 'em."
✧.*
author's note 💌
not daryl leaving esty the prick 🙄
sorry this was short, it's just a filler!
thanks for 700 reads omg
word count: 1991