007
Ella was asleep in the back of the car lying down. She was wearing a purple tanktop with some jeans and luckily a jacket. Her once sparkly pink shoes were completely worn out, splatters of blood and dirt. It was morning the light was already out, they've been driving for awhile. Maggie killed out the silence "Oh my god" she said repeatedly.
"Alright, lets just- lets just circle back to the highway." glenn said.
"Did you see my dad? Did- did he make it?" maggie questioned in a shakey voice, trying to keep herself together.
"I couldn't see anything." glenn said quietly, trying to stay calm.
"And beth- I lost beth. We've gotta go back there." maggie begged
"We can't go back, okay? There's nothing to go back to."
"But beth-"
"I- I think she was with Lori." he stammered
"did they make it?"
"I don't know."
"patricia? jimmy? what if they didn't make it? what if nobody made it?" maggie said. you could hear the pain and fear in her voice.
"They made it, okay? They had to. Alright, lets just circle around to the highway where we left supplies for Sophia."
"No. The herd came from that direction."
"Just stop. Stop the car." maggie pulls over, sniffling. Glenn got out the car to drive. Maggie looked back at ella then started sobbing, which woke her up. Ella stayed silent; just listening.
"Hey hey hey hey, maggie, look at me. look at me hey, were alive. We made it.Okay? I'm sure they are too. Right?" he paused, maggie nodded her head still sobbing silently. "I love you. Maggie, I love you. I should've said this a long time ago and its been true for a long time. We're gonna be alright, okay? We'll be alright." maggie smiled softly at him, still with tears in her eyes.
"okay. yeah." maggie nods. Glenn starts driving again. Ella stared at the empty road. She was so used to seeing busy traffic, her mother, brother and her constantly going from house to house every few days. She felt weird, Ella knew she'd have to tell the group about her father sooner or later. Or maybe even never, he might've been dead by now but who knows?
They pull into the highway, reuniting with everybody. Maggie ran to her father along with beth and lori ran to carl. Ella didn't have anyone to run to, she just stuck beside glenn. She was relieved to see everyone, alive atleast. Ella looked up at glenn who was staring at Maggie, then she looked back at her shoes.
Patricia was dead. So was Jimmy and maybe even Andrea and Shane. She didn't feel anything about it. She wasn't close to any of them, maybe Andrea a bit. But she stayed out of the others way. Everyone got back into their cars, driving off somewhere. The group would have to travel on the road for awhile. Atleast until they find another safe place to stay, but it won't be easy considering the fact winter was coming soon.
"You okay sunshine?" Maggie looked back at Ella, sitting next to beth, hershel right next to her. She nodded her head and continued to look out the window. The only cars on the road were the group's. Glenn was driving, daryl and carol in the front , Rick lori T-dog evelynn and carl behind them. Its been about an hour already since they all started driving. Rick honks his car, everyone pulls over and got out their cars.
"You out?" daryl asked
"Running on fumes." rick replied
"We can't stay here." maggie commented
"We can't all fit in one car." glenn added
"We'll have to make a run for some gas in the morning." rick insisted, it was safer that way.
"Spend the night here?" carol crossed her arms.
"Im freezing." carl said, standing infront of his lother shaking a bit. Evelynn nodded her head in agreement.
"We'll build a fire, yeah?" lori said, rubbing carls chest.
"You go out lookin' for firewood, stay close. only got so many aarows. How you doin' on ammo? daryl questioned rick
"Not enough."
"We can't just sit out here with our asses hangin' out." maggie pointed out
"watch your mouth. everyone stop panicking and listen to rick." said hershel
"Alright, we'll set up a perimeter. In the morning we'll find gas and some supplies. we'll keep pushin' on."
"glenn and I can go make a run now, try and scrounge up some gas." maggie suggested. Ella tugged her arm, shaking her head. She didn't want her to leave.
"No. We stay together. God forbid something happens and people get stranded without a car." rick denied.
"Rick, we're stranded now." said glenn
"I know it looks bad, we've all been through hell and worse but atleast we found eachother. I wasn't sure- I really wasn't, but we did. We're together. We keep it that way. We'll find shelter somewhere. There's gotta be a place." he replied to glenn.
"Rick look around. Okay? There's walkers everywhere. They're migrating or something." glenn spoke softly, trying to keep calm.
"There's gotta be a place not just where we hole up but that we fortify. hunker down, pull ourselves together. build a life for eachother. I know its out there. We just have to find it." Rick said.
"Even if we do find a place and we think its safe ae can never be sure for how long. Look what happened with the farm. We fooled ourselves into thinking that that was safe." Maggie stated.
"We won't make that mistake again." hershel assured.
"We'll make a camp. over there, get on the road at the break of day." rick pointed over to a spot on the side. Ella walked over to evelynn.
"are you okay ella..?" ev asked, she nodded her head in response. "We'll find someplace safe... don't worry." ev consoled.
"You know I found Randall, right. He had turned, but he wasn't bit." daryl said, locking eyecontact with Rick, he looked away.
"How's that possible?" Beth questioned
"Rick, what the hell happened?" lori asked
"Shane killed randall. Just like he always wanted to." Daryl guessed, replying to lori.
"And then the herd got him?" she gave rick an uneasy look as well as confused. Everything went silent for a moment.
"We're all infected." rick confessed. Everyone looked at him, confused.
"What?" said daryl.
"At the c.d.c. Jenner told me. Whatever it is, we all carry it." Rick added
"And you never said anything?" carol crossed her arms.
"Would it have made a difference?" said rick.
"You knew this whole time?" glenn questioned
"How could I have know for sure? you saw how crazy that mo-" rick got cut off. "That isn't your call. Okay, when I found out about the walkers in the barn, I told. For the good of everyone." glenn interrupted
"Well i thought it'd be best that people didn't know." said rick in a fierce tone, then looking around as everyone was completely silent just staring around. Rick walked off, lori following. Everyone started setting up the camp since it'd be dark in just a couple minutes. Daryl went to go collect firewood.
"Can I go with you?" a small voice says, behind daryl. "Not with what happened last time kid. And we might find more walkers then usual, its not safe." he replied, turning around to look at Ella.
"I promise I wont run away, pleasee! I wanna help." Ella begged.
"Go ask maggie." Ella ran over to her. "Mo- I mean Maggie-, can I help get firewood with daryl?" she pleaded, accidentally almost slipping the word mom out.
"Not today sunshine. You're too young and its far too dangerous out there" maggie replied, stroking the girls hair. "And theres no changing my mind." She hadn't notice what Ella said, she was too busy thinking about what'll happen.
Ella frowned, "Aw. okay." she shook her head at Daryl, he noticed and turned around heading into the woods. Ella sat down in between glenn and maggie. Staring at her little bunny. As it got darker, they set up a small fire to keep warm. It was freezing.
Daryl came back with more firewood, it was already pitch dark. The only source of light they had was the campfire. Beth was sort of snuggled up with her father, same with carl and lori. evelynn beside them as well. Lori was like evelynn's mother, Ella has heard so many stories about her and carl before the world basically ended. Carol and Daryl were sat next to eachother, they were whispering something. T-dog was scouting along with Rick, sort of.
"I think we should take our chances." maggie looked over at glenn.
"Don't be foolish. There's no food, no fuel, no ammo." hershel reasoned as leaves russled.
"What was that?" beth worried.
"Could be anything. Could be a Raccoon, could be a possum." Daryl answered, everyone getting up nervously.
"Walker." glenn added
"We need to leave. I mean what are we waiting for?" said carol.
"Which way?" glenn questioned.
"It came from over there." maggie darted her eyes straight ahead.
"Back from where we came." beth said
"Yeah." replied maggie
"The last thing we need is everyone to be running off in the dark. We don't have the vehicles. No one's traveling on foot." Rick spoke, a brach snapped.
"Don't panic." hershel said, as if that would really do anything. It was dark, there was noises and they don't have alot of ammo.
"Im not- Im not sitting here waiting for another herd to blow through. We need to move, now." Maggie requested, ella tugged on her arm. "Are we gonna die?" the young girl asked.
"No one is going anywhere and No one is dying." Rick had that look in his eye. A sort of death stare but he wasn't trying to kill anyone.
"Do something." Carol groaned.
"I am doing something. I'm keeping this group together, alive. I've been doing that all along, no matter what. I didn't ask for this. I killed my bestfriend for you people, for christ sake!" rick confessed, he was slowly losing his shit. Carol looked at him, eyes widened, mouth open in total shock. Everyone looked at him in disbelief and maybe even fear.
"You saw what he was like, how he pushed me. How he compromised us, how he threatened us. He staged the whole Randall thing. lead me out to put a bullet in my back, he gave me no choice. He was my friend, but he came after me." Rick explained, trying to calm down. Carl began to cry. Shane was his friend too. At one point he was his father figure while Rick was awol / missing. But also the fact Carl's first walker kill was Shane. Nobody knew that, and nobody ever will.
"My hands are clean." he continued, everyone was silent. Ella couldn't look at him. He killed someone. He could have killed her, she thought. "Maybe you people are better off without me. Go ahead. I say theres another place for us, but maybe-- maybe it's just another pipe dream. Maybe i'm fooling myself again. Why don't you-- Why don't you go and find out yourself? Send me a postcard." Rick mocked, pointing to the woods. "Go on, theres the door. You can do better? Let's see how far you get. No takes? Fine. but get one thing straight. You're staying. This isn't a democracy anymore."
Everyone stared at him, in disappointment, disbelief, and bits of fear. Lori especially. She looked at him dead the eye with a look of disappointment while Carl cried in her arms. Evelynn was just staring at him, there was nothing else she could've done. There was nothing anyone could do. Ella hid behind maggie. She didn't wanna end up dead, not yet. Now everyone had to stay on the road. No safe spot to sleep, having to move around place to place. It wasn't safe, it never was. This time it's just higher of a risk. The farm was completely gone.
A/N ;;
A bit of a shorter chapter today!!! New cover, I finally added glenn 😭 Thank you soso much for 130 reads, I appreciate all of u !!!! Will try my best to update when i can :)