Rio, Carl and Beth sat in the girl's cell later that night. Nobody had gotten back by the time the sky had fallen dark so they were all hoping for the group to arrive by morning, at the earliest.
Rio had just washed the blood and guts off of him and was now sat in the chair watching Beth rock the baby back and forth in her arms. Carl stood between them, leaning against the bed frame.
"I've thought of a name for her." He announced, fidgeting with his hands.
"Really?" Rio asked, looking up at him.
"Yeah." He answered, nodding his head.
"What is it?" Beth pried, waggling her finger at the baby who followed it intently with her eyes.
"Judith."
"That's nice."
"I tried to thing if a name with no bad... no bad—." Carls face scrunched, trying to think of the right word.
"Connotations?" Beth suggested, finishing his sentence for him.
"Yeah, connotations." Carl nodded. "It was my old teachers name, but it was one of the only ones I could think of that had a sort of happy meaning."
"I never thought I'd miss school." Rio laughed, thinking about before the outbreak. "Was she your favourite teacher?"
"Yeah. She was one of the only teachers I could stand." Carl laughed along, then looked to Beth. "What about you?" He asked, trying to bring her into the conversation.
"Huh?" She asked quietly, not paying attention. "Sorry."
"Did you like school?"
"Yeah. I liked music, and english." She said, "I liked when we'd all read."
"Maths is better." Rio teased, rocking on his chair.
"No its not." Carl protested, shaking his head.
"It so is!"
"Science was my favourite, anyway." Carl said. "I loved doing experiments."
"Did you ever make that giant foamy stuff?" The other boy asked eagerly, remembering how it was always the experiment he'd wanted to do.
"Yeah." He smiled.
"You're so lucky." Rio sunk into his chair and sighed in disappointment.
Axel knocked on the wall of the cell, making himself known. "Mind if I join you?" He asked, standing in the doorway.
Rio looked between Carl and Beth and when they said nothing he just shook his head. He sat down on the bunk bed besides Beth, looking over at Judith.
They talked for a few minutes about nothing much. He talked about the prison as they kept talking about school.
"You are good with her." Axel admired, glancing at Beth. "You ever have little sisters?"
"No," Beth shook her head. Carol walked over, standing besides the door, Rio gave her a small wave. He was glad she was back. He was glad that they were going to have Glenn and Maggie back soon.
"How old are you, anyway?" He asked the girl.
"Seventeen." Beth replied. It only then struck Rio that he hadn't known how old Beth was until now. Sure, he could've made a guess but he didn't actually know.
"Seventeen. Interesting." The man bummed in response.
"May I speak with you?" Carol interjected, asking Axel before pulling him aside.
"Me?" He asked, pointing a finger at himself.
She nodded and walked off.
"I'll be right back." He said before following after her.
"How old are you guys?" Beth asked, almost embarrassedly, she must've just realised the same thing Rio had.
"Thirteen." Carl answered
"Also thirteen. But I'm older."
"By like five months." The boy protested.
"It's still older!" Rio defended as Beth laughed at him. "What? I'm right."
Just then Judith started babbling, small cries escaping her. Rio shut his mouth, hoping it wasn't him that disturbed her.
"Ooh." Beth said, standing up. "I think she's hungry."
She walked out of the room just as Carol came back, scooping the baby out of Beth's arms. "It's alright, I've got her."
"Are you sure?" Beth asked.
"Yeah. It's no problem." She smiled, obviously already smitten by Judith, the baby starting to resemble Lori.
***
It was some time later that the three of them sat upon the stairs, Beth loading and unloading the magazine of Carls gun, pouring the bullets into her hand then back in. Hershel hopped over, an accomplished smile upon his face.
"Finally got Judith to sleep." He announced, standing besides the kids.
"How are we with formula?" Carl asked him.
"We have enough to last us another month."
"I'll take Carol for some more at the end of the week." The boy replied. Beth outstretched her hand, passing him the loaded magazine.
"Your dad and the others will be back by then." She said to him, encouragingly. He shrugged her comment off.
"They should be back by tomorrow, even." Rio added. Or at least he hoped.
"We don't know that." Carl responded sternly. He took a deep breath before continuing. "Right now, Judith is the only family I got."
Rios face dropped as the boy said that. Why would he say that? He didn't have time to dwell on it any longer as a woman's scream tore through the stunned silence, echoing in the distance.
"What was that?" Rio asked cautiously, he went to stand up from his seat but Beth grabbed his arm.
"A scream." Carl answered. "That came from inside." He stated, looking between them all.
"Was that Carol?" Beth questioned.
Hershel shook his head. "She's out keeping watch in the guard tower with Axel."
"What if they came back for something?"
"What if they're in trouble?" Rio added.
"Let's check the tower, see if they're in there."
"How could anyone else get in?" Beth asked nervously.
"The tombs are filled with walkers that wandered in from outside. Someone else could've done the same thing." Hershel answered her question with a dire look on his face.
Carl leant behind him, asking Rio to pass him his gun. He loaded it ready and stood up, the other boy following. "I'm going." Carl stated.
Hershel stuck his crutch before them, blocking them from getting off of the stairs. "I can't let you go down there."
"My father would go." Carl reasoned and the woman screamed again. Hershel reluctantly dropped his crutch, nodding at the boys as he let them through.
Carl ran ahead, holding the gate open as they entered the dark hallways. Rio shone his flashlight down the hall as Carl aimed his gun.
"What was that about?" Rio whispered from behind.
"What was what about?"
"You suggesting that no one was gonna come back and that Judith is all you have." Rio answered as if it was obvious. He thought it was, what else would he be referring to?
"I don't know." He shrugged. "It could be true, we have to prepare to be the last ones standing eventually."
Rio didn't answer. He just focused on treading lightly, not letting his boots make a noise against the hard floor.
They walked to the end, turning the corner after seeing an old torn up body. Rio turned again, finding another, more recent looking one.
Carl dropped his gun, slowing as he reached the next turn. The boiler room.
"The doors open." Rio pointed out.
"Yeah.." Carl replied, almost still. The woman's screams continued.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." He insisted.
Rio stepped forward, hand on the door when a Walker emerged, clambering towards Carl. He shot it quickly and it fell to the floor, blood pooling around its head.
The woman's screaming didn't stop.
Carl pushed past Rio, heading into the boiler room himself. He held his gun and flashlight up together whilst Rio pocketed his knife. He grabbed his gun instead.
They ran into the room, finding a woman curled up on the floor, a man cradling her and three more people each fighting off a Walker.
There was a woman, swinging the back end of a shovel at a walkers face and a man close besides her, holding the Walker in one hand and a hammer in the other. He swung hard at the creatures head and it dropped to the floor.
The third person fought hard to keep his Walker away and crouched besides the injured woman when he eventually killed it. The pole clattered to the floor. Rio looked down at her. There was a bright red bite mark over her arm.
Carl stood in the doorway and watched for a second before he shot down a Walker. The one that the woman had been struggling to kill.
Another crept up on the younger man and Rio shot it, bullet flying over his shoulder.
"Come on!" He shouted. The group all came to a stop to stare at the two boys in the door way. "Hurry!" Carl called out.
They didn't waste anymore time, more walkers were flooding in so they all headed out as fast as they could. The man scooped up the injured woman and carried her away despite both of their struggling.
He dropped to the floor after they had escaped the room, clasping the woman's head. Rio could hear the drawl of more walkers.
"Come on!"
"Just go." He said, an exasperated breath escaping him.
"Let me take her." The other man said, the one who fought with a hammer.
"I'll cover you." The uninjured woman said, swinging the shovel again. She took down one and Carl took down the other.
The man slung the woman over his shoulder and stood up.
"You have to leave her!" Carl called as another Walker drew near.
"No way!"
Rio accepted it, grabbing Carl by his free hand and dragging him through the hallways when he tried to protest, arguing that it was no use to save the woman. The group followed anyway, eager to get away from the walkers.
He pushed open the door, holding it as everyone ran through. Rio stayed back, watching the scene unfold.
The group surrounded the nan holding the woman, placing hopeful hands on her cheeks and arms.
"Oh, god! Donna?" A man shouted suddenly, letting out a pained gasp and clasping her head. "Is she dead?"
The hammer guy set the injured woman down upon the floor carefully.
"Is she dead? Baby?"
She looked it. Donna lay still. The man let out a wail as he realised she'd stopped breathing. Carl walked past Rio and towards the scene.
"I'll take care of it." He offered, loading his gun as he approached.
"Woah! Woah, kid. Wait a minute." The woman protested, between cries, holding out her hand to stop him.
"She doesn't have that long." Carl pleaded with them.
"Who the hell are you?" The woman asked, turning to them both. "How did you get in here? Who are you two with?"
"Look, we can help you. First things first..."
"No, we take care of our own." One of the men replied. He lunged at the crying man, pulling at his pocket to grab his hammer out of it.
"No, Tyreese!" He yelled.
"I gotta do it." He cried. "Look, just take Ben and lean against the wall. It'll be quick."
The crying man's hand shook as he leant over Donna. He placed a kiss on her forehead and covered it with a bandana.
Carl hurried out of the cell block and Rio quickly followed behind. Beth was waiting on the other side of the gate.
He watched as Tyreese raised the hammer, hands trembling.
Carl slammed the door shut. He heard the click of a lock.
"Hey what are you doing?" The woman asked, walking forward.
"Kid did you just lock us in here?"
"Open the door."
"This room is secure. You'll be safe." He reassured them. "You have food and water."
The woman reached the gate, grabbing the bars firmly. "Open this door."
"I can't."
"Come on, man. We're not animals. Don't do this" She pleaded.
Nobody answered her.
"Hey!" She yelled, rattling the gate. "You can't just leave us in here! Open this door! Open it! Now!" She continued to bang on the gate, screaming.
"Sasha!" Tyreese panted, "back away from the door and let the man go." He calmed her down, pulling her away from the gate.
"Look around you." He continued. "This is the best we've had in weeks. His house."
"We've got other things to do." He finished, pointing towards Donna as she lay on the floor, hair splaying out from the bandana that still covered her face.
"We don't want any trouble." Tyreese said, turning to them all. He nodded before leading Sasha away again. The rest of their group followed.
"Shouldn't we help them?" Beth asked, frown upon her face as she watched them turn the corner.
"I did."
***
part 1/2 of a double update bc I don't like this chapter 😁😁