It's another night that we're camping out in the wilderness, I know Aurora is scared out of her mind, I'm scared myself but the three of us were also trying to comfort each other, pretend like we weren't out in the woods right now.
"So what's this book the two of you were willing to risk your lives for?" I ask as we huddle around the fire, we were cooking the last of our rabbit and I really did not know what we were gonna do for food tomorrow. I could not hunt the smaller animals like Daryl could. They best I could do was set traps but I got so insanely lucky with the rabbit I didn't see us finding another one of those.
"It's our family photo album." Aelia says as she fishes it out of her bag. We were so lucky she'd grabbed the bag because she'd managed to shove two water bottles in there and so at least we were okay for water.
"How on earth do you guys still have that?" Why was that a priority during the literal apocalypse? "Mom wouldn't let us leave without it." I smile faintly, sounded like mom. She'd rather burn in a house fire attempting to save her precious mementos.
"Let's see then." I say holding my hands out, the three of us then spend the rest of the evening poured over their lives pre walker. "Oh Rory you were so adorable." I hum at her little page of baby pictures. "Yeah it's a shame what's happened to you." Aelia snorts at her own words as Rory giggles. "I'm still cuter than you'll ever be." She bites back making me join in with the laughter.
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I do not have good time perception because I really cannot tell how long we've been out here. We'd been managing to survive on berries and such but I knew that unless we found proper shelter and supplies soon, we would not make it much longer.
"A house!" Aurora runs ahead excitedly but I have to chase after her and grab her. "Aurora you can't just go running into somewhere like that. We have to be careful. It could be filled with walkers or bad people." She nods and apologises so I tell her and Lia to stay here on the other side of the fence until I give them the all clear.
I pull my gun out of my waist band and I pray that I don't have to use it before I make my way across to the house. The inside is empty but shows that someone was either still here or they had been. I leave the house and walk back towards my sisters to give them the all clear when I spot two figure walking towards the back garden.
I didn't check the garden, but I squint and realise that it's Carol and Tyreese. "Guys! It's Carol and Tyreese!" Both my sisters seem to share my excitement as we run over to reunite with our friends. The excitement is cut short once we get there to see Tyreese leading a bloody handed Lizzy away from her sisters corpse.
"Mika?" Rory squeaks from beside me. "Oh don't look, don't look Rory." I say pulling her into me as quickly as I can. Carol turns at our voices and forces a smile. "Rory, why don't you go in and find Sophia." She says, her voice very strained. Aelia nods and grabs Rory's hand to take her in as I stay outside with Carol.
Once they're inside she allows her tears to fall. She drops her guns as she doubles over and begins crying. I'm at her side in an instant, "what happened?" I ask softly as she holds onto me and cries into my shoulder. "Lizzy, she..." I nod and gently pry the knife from carols hand. "I'll deal with Mika." I say knowing she didn't need to do this right now. "You can go inside Carol." She nods and wipes her eyes before hugging me once more. "I'm so glad that you found us, Sophia and I, we really missed you." I nod, "I missed you guys like crazy too, I can't wait to see Soph again." Then something dawns on me.
"Does... does Tyreese know?" My voice is a whisper because I'm afraid of him hearing us, she shakes her head, her face morphing into a picture of guilt. I nod and squeeze her shoulder, "it's alright, I'll see you guys in a minute."
I deal with Mika with a heavy heart, she'd been a lovely child. She always told me that she enjoyed my story time way more than Carol's and it was such a shame that this had happened to her. I keep thinking that maybe if we'd gotten here a bit earlier then maybe this could've been avoided.
Once I get inside it's hard to to muster up the excitement I was feeling half an hour ago. "Selene!" Sophia hurtles towards me and the excitement returns instantly. "Oh my goodness Soph!" She hugs me so right and I grin and I return it. "You've grown so tall." She giggles and calls me dramatic before hugging me once more. "I missed you so much." She hums making me smile, "I missed you too kid, being lost out in the woods want the same without you." She laughs and then Aurora pulls her away as I walk over to the kitchen area where the 'adults' were.
Lizzy had been separated and they were trying to decide what to do with her. Tyreese smiles warmly once he sees me approach. "I'm so glad you're okay." He says wrapping me up in a bear hug. "You do not know how glad we are to have found you." I say as he hands me some water and food.
"Oh my god! Judith!" I can't believe I didn't notice the baby earlier. I put the food down and walk over to Aelia who was holding the baby. She reaches her small arms out to me, indicating that she wanted me to carry her. "Oh my sweet girl, I can't believe you're here right now." I say as she nuzzles up to me instantly. "I missed you too baby Grimes." My heart sinks slightly as I think of her father and her brother. I assumed that they would've been together.
"What happened to you guys?" Carol asks as she glances between the marks Aelia and I had given each other during our fight. I had a huge bruise on my cheek as well as scratch marks all over and she had a puffy split lip, a nasty red bump on her forehead and a long scratch across her cheek. We share a sheepish look.
"Sisterly love?"