The group of eight was searching desperately for a way out of the walker-filled cave. They tried to climb back up the way they came, but it was no use. Daryl told them all the climbing out was impossible, and they were risking breaking their bones, so they had to find another way. Rosie argued that she didn't care if she broke a bone if it meant she could get them all out of there, and Daryl told her to shut up and look for a better way out.
So that's what they were doing; searching for a better way out. Daryl shines a flashlight around the cave. Rosie didn't see the point. No matter where anyone found an exit, they wouldn't be able to get there due to the giant moat of walkers beneath them. But Daryl kept on shining that damn flashlight.
"You got something?" Aaron asked as Daryl's flashlight paused on a stream of water dripping down the wall.
"Groundwater's deeper in here. That water's comin' from outside," Daryl said. Rosie had no idea what groundwater was, but she figured Daryl knew what he was talking about.
"I don't see a way across," Carol said over the incessant growling of the walkers below.
Again, Daryl began shining his flashlight across the sea of walkers. "Woah, woah. Wait. Go back," Aaron suddenly spoke up. Daryl moved his flashlight back until the beam of light landed on a few large rocks in the middle of the horde. "We could use those to jump across," Aaron said.
"Nice," Daryl said in agreement.
Rosie couldn't believe that they were actually thinking about jumping across those rocks. It seemed impossible. "Are you guys serious?" Rosie asked, her eyebrows furrowed. Aaron gave a shrug and nodded. "And what happens when one of us slips?" Rosie asked.
"Ain't got any other choice," Daryl murmured, shining the flashlight over the path of rocks.
"You're fuckin' crazy," Rosie huffed as she stared at the snarling walkers below them all.
"Alright. You ready?" Daryl asked everyone, ignoring Rosie's comment. No one gave any reply, but Daryl went, anyway. "Let's go," he said. He took more deep breath before jumping across to the first rock. Rosie's hands went to the roots of her hair, pulling hard as she watched the walkers claw at Daryl's feet. "Come on," Daryl said to the rest, waving his arm at them. "Let's go."
"You're fuckin' crazy, Daryl," Rosie muttered as Daryl jumped across to the next rock. She jumped when she felt Carol put her hands on her shoulders and start leading her to the edge of the rock. "What? What're you doin'?" she asked.
"You first," Carol said, giving her shoulder a pat.
"What? No. Why me?" Rosie asked, her eyes wide. She didn't wanna go first. In fact, she didn't want to go at all.
"Because if we're not here to make you go, you won't go at all," Carol said just as Rosie reached the edge of the rocks they were already on. Rosie looked back at Carol, shaking her head adamantly. "You're gonna be ok," Carol said reassuringly.
Still, Rosie shook her head. "Fuck this. I'm not-"
"Rosie, now!" Daryl snapped, his voice echoing throughout the cave.
Her heart hammering in her chest, Rosie took the leap of faith with her eyes wide open. She landed on her feet in the center of the first rock, but almost toppled over as soon as she stood up straight. "Fuck this. Fuck this. Fuck this," she kept muttering to herself as the walkers clawed at her feet.
"You're fine. Keep comin'. You're ok," Daryl said, beckoning her to keep going.
After taking yet another deep breath, Rosie jumped across to the next rock, and Carol jumped onto the first one. The next rock was even worse. Rosie had to kick the walkers' heads to keep them from pulling her down. But after the next rock, Daryl was only one more jump away.
"C'mon. I got ya," Daryl told Rosie, holding his hand out to her.
"This is fuckin' crazy, Daryl," Rosie panted, her eyes wide as she stared at the space between herself and the next rock.
"Alright, cool it with the F-bombs, will ya? That's, like, the hundredth time in the past minute. You're almost done," Daryl said, waving his fingers toward himself. And even though Rosie was terrified, she made the last jump across and Daryl pulled her back, away from the ledge. He squeezed her shoulder as she caught her breath. "See? You're fine," he said.
Rosie nodded her head, pressing her back up against the rocks behind her as she watched the rest of the group make their way across the rocks. When Kelly got over to them, one of the walkers managed to snag her foot, but Jerry didn't hesitate to cut off the thing's arm.
"Hey, hand me that thing," Daryl said.
With a disgusted and confused look on his face, Jerry picked up the walker's arm and handed it up to Daryl. "Knock yourself out, dude," he said.
Daryl took the walker's arm and started to climb up the rocks behind them, then Connie, then Rosie, and then all the rest. When they got up to the top, Daryl pulled a pack of matches out of his pocket and lit the arm on fire, using it as a torch.
He passed the walker-arm-torch to Connie. "Alright. I need you to stay here, alright? Keep everyone together," he said. Connie nodded in understanding. With another match, Daryl began to look around for an exit. Rosie leaned up against the wall, right in between Connie and Carol, who was still panting heavily.
"Should I even ask how we're doing on food?" Aaron asked Jerry.
Oh, God, Rosie thought, we better not be down here long enough to need food.
"Not great," Jerry murmured.
"Food?" Kelly asked, her eyebrows raised. She had the same question as Rosie. "How long you think we gonna be here?" she asked.
"Hey, no worries. Walkers got in here somehow. We'll get out," Jerry reassured them all. Rosie wasn't so sure, though. It didn't seem like there was any exit around there. Daryl hadn't found one yet.
"I think we know exactly how they got here. Alpha put them here. These are theirs," Aaron muttered, referring to the Whisperers. At the thought of the Whisperers, Rosie pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes. They should have been looking for Lydia. And now they were trapped in some cave, being no help to Lydia at all. "We have to assume we're not alone," Aaron said.
Connie leaned forward to look past Rosie, at Carol, who was still breathing fast and heavy. Are you ok? Connie signed, her eyebrows raised with concern.
Carol nodded. "I'm fine. Just a little winded," she lied.
"She's claustrophobic," both Rosie and Daryl spoke at the same time. Rosie remembered it moderately well. Walking through the basement hallways of the CDC and thinking that it was stupid that Carol was afraid of being underground. I was a little shit back then, Rosie thought to herself.
"Why didn't you think of that before you got us all trapped down here?" Magna muttered, obviously pissed off by the whole situation. Rosie rolled her eyes.
"Hey. It's not the time for this," Aaron said, trying to ease the tense atmosphere.
"Why not? Seems like we have plenty of it," Magna snarked. Rosie wanted to tell her, because you're annoying and no one wants to listen to you berate Carol for the next half hour, pretending like you've never done something stupid before either, but she decided to keep her mouth shut. "What the hell were you thinking, huh? Running off like that by yourself."
"Aye! We ain't got time for this shit," Daryl said, joining the group once again. Magna gave Carol a glare and turned away to stand next to Kelly again. "We got in this mess together. We're gonna get out of it together. Now follow me. I think I found a way out," Daryl said.
Without a second of hesitation, the group followed his lead, making their way through the dark tunnels. He led them through to an open space with tons of stalactites hanging from the ceiling, dripping water onto the ground. No exit. Trapped, again, only in a different area. God fucking damnit. The group had no choice but to spread out, some taking breaks and some continuing on searching for exits.
The stalactites made Rosie feel dizzy, somehow. She felt like they were gonna drop down from the ceiling and crush her whole. Maybe that wouldn't be so bad. Maybe it was better than waiting to starve to death in this cave. Maybe it was better than getting out of this cave only to find Lydia dead in the woods somewhere. Maybe it would've just been better if she missed that first jump onto that rock.
"Stop," Daryl's voice snapped her out of her thoughts, his hand tapping her upper arm.
Rosie looked up from the ground, glancing at him. "What?" she asked. What had she done wrong now? She hadn't said the F-word out loud since Daryl told her to stop, so what was it now?
"Thinkin' how you're thinkin'. Negan's right. It's in your eyes," Daryl muttered, taking a seat on the ground with a lantern by his side. Rosie scoffed at that. She missed Negan, but she was also pissed at him for telling Daryl her business. Now she had to deal with shit like this all the time.
"I don't wanna talk about that," Rosie murmured, digging the toe of her shoe into the ground.
"Then stop thinkin' 'bout it," Daryl told her. He was tired of trying to get her to talk to him. Tired of trying to get her to come to him for help, instead of Negan. It didn't make sense and he didn't know what to do anymore.
Again, Rosie scoffed out a humorless laugh. She crossed her arms and turned away, ready to walk off and sit on her own. But, of course, Daryl wasn't done yet. With the horde, and Carol, and Alpha, and Lydia being missing, and Rosie's sudden reluctance to talk to him had all been adding to the stress of the day. His frustration had reached its peak.
"I'm not done talkin' to you," Daryl said sternly. Rosie wanted to tell him to fuck off and leave her alone, but she knew better than that, so she turned to look at him with a glare. "I wanna know; is this all still 'bout your brother, or d'you got another reason you're hidin' shit from me, goin' to Negan instead? 'Cause you've been doin' it since we left the woods, and I'm gettin' pretty fuckin' tired of it."
Unsure of what to say, Rosie bit down on her lip, stopping herself from saying something hurtful to him.
"I've been doin' everythin' I can, and you don't seem to give a shit. It's the same with you and Carol. I'm beggin' you to talk to me, and you won't. I don't know what to do anymore," Daryl said.
Rosie's eyes burned. She looked away, focusing her eyes on her shoes rather than his face. She had nothing to say to him. She didn't have a clue what he wanted her to say. All she could think of was, "Sorry."
Daryl had no chance to reply before Rosie shoved her hands into her pockets and walked off, sitting herself down behind one of the rocks by herself. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes, but she quickly wiped them away with the backs of her hands.
"I never told you I was claustrophobic," Rosie could hear Carol say around the corner, presumably to Daryl.
"If I only knew what you told me, I wouldn't know shit," Daryl grumbled in response.
"Look who's talking," Carol responded.
Then, there was silence, for just a moment before it was replaced by Daryl's voice. He must've had enough of them all refusing help, because he was about to get on Carol's back about it, too.
"It's like I can't even turn my back on you anymore," he said. Rosie was eavesdropping, even though she knew she wasn't supposed to be. She just wanted to know that it wasn't only her who Daryl was mad at. Somehow, knowing it wasn't only her fault made it easier. "It's bad enough I got Rosie seconds away from doin' what her brother did at any given moment. Now I gotta worry 'bout you all half-cocked every time you go outside."
Suddenly, Rosie didn't want to listen to their conversation anymore. She didn't want to hear any of it at all. So, she pressed her fingers against her ears and closed her eyes.
She imagined she was just a kid again, back at her and Daryl's camp in the woods. None of this mattered so much then. Everything was ok. She could look at the stars and talk about constellations, and she could draw the plants and the animals, and she could catch frogs in the river, and she could read books about dinosaurs.
In and out, in and out, in and out.
That's what she'd always do. Breathe, in and out. Maggie showed her how, and soon after, Daryl did, too. The problem was, though, that sometimes Rosie didn't want to breathe anymore. She knew it was wrong. She knew it'd hurt the people she loved if she did. But she couldn't help thinking it.
In and out, in and out, in and out.
"Skins!"
Rosie stood up as fast as lightning, instinctively looking to Daryl for guidance. He grabbed the walker-arm-torch off the ground and began running towards the sound of Magna's voice. Everyone else followed, Rosie behind all of them.
There were one, two, three, four, five skins, and they took down each and every one of them- except, no, one got away. They ran after the escaped Whisperer, but lost them through the maze of rocks.
Connie began signing something, but it was too much and too fast for Rosie to figure out. Luckily, Kelly was there to translate. "If we don't follow each other in the dark, we're gonna get split up," she said.
"She's right. We stick together," Carol said, nodding her head.
"At least we know there's a way out, now," Aaron said.
"Yeah, but where?" Magna asked.
"I think they went this way," Jerry murmured.
All heads turned to look at him. He was pointing down some other pathway in the cave. "You see where they went?" Daryl asked, approaching with the torch.
"Not exactly, but..." Jerry shined his flashlight at one of the rocks. Carved into the rock was an arrow. "I know a road sign when I see one."
"How do we know it's not a trap?" Rosie asked, eyeing the arrow warily. It seemed to her that if they wanted them trapped down there, they wouldn't have arrows leading to the exit.
However, Daryl gave no reply before disappearing down the path the arrow pointed to. Everyone followed, Rosie last in line. She thought this was a very bad idea. But she'd rather die with all of them than get stuck there on her own.
The arrow only led to another opening with a whole bunch of potential exits. Daryl began snaking his way through a narrow opening between two large rocks. After a minute of waiting, the rest heard him whisper-shout, "This is it!"
First Magna, then Kelly, and then Rosie slid through the opening. The others followed behind soon after. Soon enough, they were forced into an army crawl as the path got smaller and smaller. Rosie wasn't necessarily scared of small spaces, but the idea that the cave could potentially collapse and crush all of them was making her anxiety spike. She didn't want any of these people dead. Not even Magna, who was getting on her nerves.
"Alright, I'm out. Follow my voice," Daryl's voice called out. Magna was in front, and she did just that, following the sound of his voice until she reached the exit. Next was Kelly, and right behind Kelly was Rosie. "You ok?" Daryl asked, holding his hand out to pull her up.
Rosie pulled herself up, ignoring Daryl's hand. "Fine," she muttered, brushing the dirt and dust off of her clothes. Daryl gave her a look that probably had some eye words behind it, but Rosie didn't bother trying to figure them out.
Only a moment after, Daryl became distracted with getting Carol out of there despite her claustrophobia making her freeze. It only took a little while longer to get Carol out, and once she got out, a new stressor was added to the situation. Walkers were after them.
Panicked and rushed, Connie and Aaron made their way out of the hole, but Jerry was still down there. "Guys! I'm... I'm stuck," Jerry called out.
Daryl stretched his arm as far down the hole as he could. "Here! Take my hand!" he shouted. Rosie couldn't see Jerry, but she could hear him panicking and it made her stomach churn.
"My feet! They got my feet! They're biting my feet!" Jerry panicked. He had shoes on his feet. His shoes better be good fucking shoes.
"Take your gear off! Take it off!" Aaron shouted down to him.
Jerry did just that, and after he did, he was finally able to be pulled through the opening. Walkers came crawling after him, but Rosie didn't hesitate to stick her knife in their heads.
"It's ok. They didn't bite through," Kelly reassured everyone.
"Hey. Look," Magan breathed out, walking towards what looked to be an exit. Luckily, Daryl caught her before she could walk off the ledge and go plummeting to her death.
As Daryl lit up a new walker-arm-torch, Rosie stared down into the pit of darkness, wondering how deep it went and if there were more walkers at the bottom. When Daryl dropped the torch, it fell down, down, down until it landed, revealing hundreds of snarling walkers at the bottom.
Great.
"Let's keep lookin'. There's gotta be some other way outta here," Daryl said. He took Jerry's flashlight and began leading the group through some more tunnels. They found themselves in what seemed to be some sort of mineshaft. "Alright. Find somethin' to dig with," Daryl said after finding what looked to be an exit covered with rocks.
Kelly went off to look around and Rosie joined her. There were lots of things miners would have used for mining back in the day. Now Rosie only saw them as weapons to be used for killing walkers, and sometimes other people.
"What's that?" Rosie asked, crouching down next to Kelly, who was looking at a box she had uncovered. When Rosie saw what was inside, her eyes widened. "Holy shit," she breathed out.
"Hey, check this out," Kelly said, picking up the dynamite and showing it to the rest of the group. Each person's eyes widened as they saw it. "Yo. Somebody left this crate of dynamite."
Jerry froze up at the sight of it, staring at it like it was going to go off at any second. "Yeah, ok, that's really cool. But maybe somebody left it there because it's obviously insanely dangerous," he said.
The excited smile melted off of Rosie's face and she turned herself away, pretending that she hadn't had a thing to do with finding the dynamite and that she obviously knew they shouldn't have touched it.
"That thing's sweatier than I am. I need you to put it back. Very carefully," Jerry said. Kelly returned the dynamite to the box as carefully as she possibly could.
•
It took over an hours worth of digging and tearing things apart, but the group finally managed to break through to the sunlight. They were all covered with dust, dirt, and grime, and they were ready to be out of that damn cave.
"C'mon. Go," Daryl said, helping Kelly get up to try and see if they could fit through.
"Just a little more," Kelly called down to them.
"Where's Carol?" Daryl asked out of nowhere, suddenly noticing that the woman was gone.
Rosie furrowed her eyebrows, looking around. She was there just a moment ago. Where could she have gone? How could she have gone? She was terrified of being down there, and now that they were finally almost out, she was gone. It didn't make sense.
Daryl passed Rosie to look around, and he froze once he turned a corner. Rosie peaked over his shoulder to see that two sticks of dynamite were now missing from the box. Her eyebrows shot up. What was Carol planning to do with those?
"Damnit!" Daryl muttered, rushing off to find Carol.
And even though Rosie was mad at him, she wanted to help. "I'll help you find her," she said.
But Daryl stopped and turned to look at her, a look of anger and impatience on his face. "No. You stay here," he said sternly.
"I can help you," Rosie insisted, furrowing her eyebrows.
"No! Do what I fuckin' said and stay here!" Daryl snapped at her. Rosie froze at the anger in his voice. He put his hand on her back and shoved her back towards the others before rushing off to find Carol on his own.
In Rosie's head, she had screamed a thousand things at him, including several colorful words and things she would regret saying. But in real life, she stayed frozen until Connie put her hand on her shoulder, grabbing her attention.
Are you ok? Connie signed, her eyebrows pinched together.
He's an asshole, Rosie signed in return, letting out a frustrated huff.
Connie smiled and laughed a little at that, but then tapped Rosie's arm once again. Because he loves you, she signed. And Rosie knew that, but knowing it didn't change the fact that it frustrated her endlessly. Either way, Rosie gave a nod of understanding.
Just as Rosie nodded, the walls of the cave began to rumble. Dust and dirt started to fall from the ceiling and the beam that kept the exit open began to fall. Aaron and Jerry worked together to hold it up as they started rushing the others to climb out. Kelly was the first to climb out, soon alerting the others that there were Whisperers outside.
But Rosie wasn't going to go until Daryl and Carol were back. She wasn't going to leave them to die like she let the others in the barn die and like she let Siddiq die. When she went rushing down the path Daryl had disappeared in, Aaron caught her arm.
"Where are you going?!" he asked, his eyes wide and panicked.
"To get Daryl and Carol!" Rosie shouted over the loud rumbling.
"Connie's already on it. Let's go! Kelly needs help!" Aaron insisted.
"I can't!" Rosie said, shaking her head. She couldn't leave. Not without the others.
With no other choice, Aaron left Rosie to help Kelly take out the Whisperers up top. As Rosie went running down the path, she almost completely slammed into Daryl. He grabbed her shoulder and began shoving her back down the path.
"Go, go, go," he breathed out. Behind him was Connie, Carol, and Magna. When they got to the exit, Rosie was the first to climb out, and Daryl after her, and Carol after him. Then, Jerry couldn't hold the beam up any longer. He was the next to climb out of the hole.
And just as soon as Jerry climbed out of that cave, the dynamite went off.
Rosie quickly turned away, shielding her head from debris. As she sat there, covering her head for those few seconds, it felt like time was frozen. She realized that Connie and Magna were still in that cave. Connie and Magna were dead. They were dead.
"No! No! No!" Kelly cried upon the realization that her sister never made it out. While Daryl began trying to dig through the rubble, Rosie couldn't bring herself to move. She felt like she couldn't breathe again.
Kelly's crying. Maybe that was it. Maybe her wails and cries were what was sending Rosie spiraling back into that barn, back onto her knees, back to watching Alpha cut off the heads of her friends and family.
Or maybe it was the fact that she had let her friends and family die again. She did it again. She climbed out of that hole before Magan and Connie, and now Magna and Connie were dead because of it. She pulled on the roots of her hair, biting down on her bottom lip so hard that it drew blood.
Rosie couldn't hear it when Kelly shouted at Daryl, telling him there was no point in trying to dig through the rubble. She couldn't hear it when Carol begged Daryl to tell her that it was her own fault. She couldn't hear anything over the sounds of crying and screaming that were filling her head and making her heart drop into her stomach.
Enid was fighting. She was fierce and she was strong. She fought to try and save her family and now she was dead. Henry was just a kid. He cried for his mom. He cried for his dad. He was just a kid and he was dead. Tara had stopped one of the Whisperers from slicing Rosie's throat open, and Tara was the one who was dead. And Rosie was still alive. Why?
"Rosie," Aaron's voice said, broken and tired. Rosie couldn't hear him. He put his hands on her shoulders, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Hey. We're going-"
"Where's-" Rosie took a deep, shaky breath, her eyes scanning over what was left of the group. Daryl wasn't there. He must've left. "Where'd Daryl go?"
"He wants us to go back home and tell the others we found the horde," Aaron explained.
Tearing herself away from Aaron, Rosie let her anger get the best of her. "That's not what I fuckin' asked. Where'd he go?" she asked, her voice hoarse from all the dust she had been breathing in.
"We don't know. We're supposed to go back-"
"No. Fuck this. I'm goin' to look for Lydia," Rosie said. Aaron tried stopping her, grabbing her arm, and trying to reason with her, but she wouldn't listen. She hit his hand away and walked off on her own, no matter how many times they called for her to stop. She didn't care anymore.
She let those people in the barn die, she let Siddiq die, she let Connie and Magna die, and she was not going to let Lydia die. She needed to find her and bring her back home. She wasn't just giving up this time. Not again.