I pace the room uncomfortably, my heart beating fast, "Daryl hasn't come back. I'm going out for him." I turn to walk out of the church when Alyssa grabs my wrist.
"No! We have to wait for Rick to come back with Sasha and Tyreese. You can't go out there alone."
"The hell I can't, 'Lyss!" Irritation and worry cloud my vision. "Jesus, we're being hunted like prey by those pricks from Terminus! For all I fuckin' know, Daryl could be shot somewhere!"
Alyssa clenches her jaw irritatedly, "Yeah, you're right, he could be. But you could get shot straight after! You need to stay here until Rick comes back. Once he comes back, we can think of a plan-"
The doors of the church slam open and Rick, Sasha, and Tyreese walk in. No Daryl.
They all walk up to Gabriel, who is cleaning up around the church.
"Stop." Sasha grunts. Gabriel stops cleaning and turns to look at her. "What are you doing?" She asks, condescendingly. He looks around confusedly and slowly approaches her, she steps closer as well.
"What...are...you doing?" Her voice is full of venom. Inejra steps away from watching Alyssa and me and walks over to them.
"This is all connected." Sasha queries. "You show up, we're being watched," Gabriel looks around, nervously. "And now three of us are gone."
Gone.
"I..." Gabriel's voice trails off.
"Alright, look, princess," Inejra stands in between Gabriel and Sasha. "I get it, your people are missing and you wanna find them or whatever. But just because Gabriel here was a pussy and didn't want to kill the Sickos doesn't mean we have anything to do with your missing people."
"Inejra...Inejra and I don't have anything to do with this." Gabriel's voice is scared. Scared of being found out or not believed?
Sasha unsheathes her knife with a loud slice sound. "Wait!" Gabriel jumps back and pulls Inejra back with him.
"Hey!" Inejra yells. "Put that fuckin' thing down. You touch Gabriel with that, no matter how goddamn annoying he is, and I will scalp you." She narrows her eyes at Sasha and stands confidently.
Jesus, I love her.
Sasha disregards Inejra, "Who's out there?" She asks Gabriel.
Because Inejra is being ignored, it pisses her off more as Sasha slowly approaches Gabriel. "Yo!" She stops her foot. "Back the fuck up! Don't treat me like I'm five because you and I both know damn well that I could drop you at any point in time."
Finally, Sasha looks at Inejra, "Do you know something?"
Inejra scoffs, "Oh my god. You're fucking insane. Like, gone." She takes a deep breath and glares at Sasha. "No. We both know nothing. Not put the goddamn knife away before I-"
"Inejra," Gabriel warns, pulling her away slowly. "Get off of me!" She grunts, shoving his hand off of her shoulder though she doesn't move from his side.
"We-we don't have anything to do with this-" "Where are our people?" Sasha gets close to Gabriel's face, her words come out through gritted teeth.
"I don't have anything to-" "Where are our people?!" Sasha screams, causing Gabriel to flinch slightly.
"Lower your voice!" Inejra yells back.
"Please, I don't have anything to do with this. I..." Rick slowly pulls Sasha away from Gabriel's trembling body.
"Why'd you bring us here?" Rick asks.
"Please...I-I"
"You workin' with someone?"
"We're alone. We're alone." Gabriel reassures Rick. "We've always been alone."
"What about the woman in the food bank? What did you do to her? 'You'll burn for this'? That was for you, why? What are you gonna burn for, Gabriel?" Suddenly, Rick grabs Gabriel by the collar.
"Hey!" Inejra yells, lunging toward Rick but Alyssa pulls her back. "Alyssa get off of me!" She yells, struggling under Alyssa's bear-hug of a hold.
"Give it a second!" Alyssa yells, trying to calm Inejra down.
"Get the fuck off of Gabriel!" She screams, still trying to break free from Alyssa.
"What did you do?" Rick interrogates, his voice leaking with malice. "What did you do?!" Gabriel shoves Rick off and looks around, his face twisting with regret.
His lip quivers as he tries to find the right words to say. Finally, "I lock the doors at night. I always lock the doors at night. I always lock the doors at night." He begins crying and looks down to hide his face.
He takes a deep breath before looking at Rick again. "They started coming, my congregation. Atlanta was bombed the night before and they were scared. They were-they were looking for a safe place. A place where they felt safe."
Gabriel whimpers, Inejra has stopped trying to fight Alyssa back though Alyssa is still holding her for good measure.
"And it was so early. It was so early. And the doors were still locked." There's so much shame and remorse in Gabriel's body that it makes Rick relax very slightly.
"You see...it was my choice." Gabriel admits. "There were so many of them and they were trying to pry the shutters and banging on the sidings, screaming at me. And so...the dead came for them."
"Sickos." Inejra mumbles, correcting Gabriel.
Gabriel looks at Inejra, his face trying to hold back tears. "Sickos." He turns to look at Sasha. "Women, children." Alyssa's eyes widen in disgust.
"Entire families calling my name as they were torn apart. Begging me for mercy. Begging me for mercy." Gabriel begins sobbing, holding his hands to his chest and hunching over to hide his face. "Damning me to hell."
Inejra's face softens and her body relaxes. Alyssa lets go of her and she slowly walks over to Gabriel. She doesn't say or do anything, she just stands there.
She must be like me, terrible at comfort but wishing she could make it all better.
"I buried their bones. I buried it all." He nods and looks at Rick. "The Lord sent you here to finally punish me." He begins sobbing again and sits on the ground, his body quivering with tears.
"I'm damned." He whimpers. "I was damned before. I always lock the doors. I always lock the doors." He hunches down further and continues sobbing.
"You cry like a little kid." Inejra mumbles.
"There's something..." Glenn says from the back window. "There's someone outside lying in the grass."
Daryl?
My heart picks up its pace with hope and suspense.
"Sasha." Rick warns before Sasha bolts outside, all of us follow.
Bob is lying unconscious, half of his leg missing and wrapped up.
She screams out, "BOB!" Walkers begin stumbling toward us, inching closer and closer to Bob's body.
"His leg." Maggie exclaims.
"Get him inside! We'll take care of them!" Glenn says, stabbing a Walker.
I grab my pistol and begin firing at the Walkers, killing them.
Damn, I miss my whip.
Damien brings his bat down on some of their heads and everyone else continues to eliminate the rest of them.
Rick looks at me and nods as a sign that everything is clear, so I motion to Damien and we begin walking inside. "We'll find him." Damien reassures me.
"Bob, please wake up." Sasha pleads, tearfully. She slaps his face very lightly a few times before he moves his head and pries open his eyes.
"Bob!" Sasha exclaims, straightening up. "What the hell happened?!"
Bob looks around confusedly before making eye contact with Sasha. "I was...I was in the graveyard. Somebody knocked me out." His voice is distressed, his hand squeezing Sasha's.
"I woke up outside this place. It looked like a...like a school." Bob's breathing is rapid and heavy, his voice is raspy. "It was that guy, Gareth. And five other ones. They were eating my leg right in front of me. Like it was nothin'."
Everyone's faces twist into a disgusted, repulsed look. "Ew." Inejra whispers from next to Gabriel, both of them are standing behind us.
"All proud like they had it all figured out." Bob continues.
"Was Daryl there?" I ask, eagerly stepping closer. "Carol?" Rick asks as well.
"Gareth said they drove off."
"What?" I whisper, taking a step back.
Bob groans in pain, his breathing hitching. "He's in pain. Do we have anything?" Sasha asks, urgently.
"There are pills packed in the first aid kit." Rosita says. "Yeah." Sasha nods, telling her to go get them.
"Save 'em." Bob suddenly rasps.
"No." Sasha refuses.
"Really." Bob grunts, turning to look at her.
Something is wrong, just by the way he's looking at her.
He slowly sits up and grunts as he pulls his shirt down, revealing a bite on his shoulder.
Sasha's eyes widen and she stares at him, her heart breaking with every given second.
Alyssa whimpers and looks at her legs. "Fuck." I whisper.
Sasha begins to tear up as she smiles and whispers, "It's okay." Gently helping him lay back down.
Everyone stares at Bob silently until he lays down, senseless.
"Bob?" Sasha asks, holding his hand and protecting his head as she slowly lowers it to the ground.
"There's a sofa in my office." Gabriel offers from behind us. "I know it's not much but..."
Sasha turns to face Gabriel, "Thank you." She whispers.
"I got him." Tyreese says softly.
Tyreese gently picks up Bob and walks him into Gabriel's office, laying him on the couch.
"He have a fever?" Rick asks Maggie.
"He's warm." She says.
"Jim lasted almost two days before we left him." Glenn remembers.
Damn, I forgot about that group.
"Time for a reality check." Abraham speaks up from behind us. "We all need to leave for DC right now."
I scoff, "Jesus."
"Daryl and Carol are gonna be back." Rick says. "We're not goin' anywhere without them."
"I respect that, but there's a clear threat here to Eugene. I need to extract his ass before things get any uglier. So if y'all won't come, good luck to you. We'll go our separate ways." With that, Abraham turns and begins walking to the doors with Rosita.
"You leavin' on foot?" Rick asks.
"We fixed that damn bus ourselves." Abraham says, matter-of-factly, turning to us.
"There are a lot more of us." Rick says, approaching Abraham.
"You want to keep it that way? You should come."
"Carol saved your life. We saved your life."
"Well, I am trying to save yours!" Abraham bellows. "Save everyone's!"
"We're not goin' anywhere without our people."
"Your people took off."
"They're comin' back."
"To what, picked-over bones?!" Abraham's voice is raspy and angry, his attempt at trying to get his point across isn't working too well.
"You're not takin-" Rick tries to grab Abraham but he smacks his hand away.
"Do not lay hands!"
"Abraham!" Rosita warns.
"Hey, hey, stop! Now!" Glenn yells, standing in the middle of the two men.
"Do you really think that you're gonna be any safer leaving right now in the middle of the night?" Glenn asks though it sounds more like a statement.
"Yeah," Abraham nods. "Yeah."
"What about tomorrow? We need each other for this. We need each other to get to DC. We can get through all of it together." Glenn yells.
"God you guys are fuckin' idiots!" Inejra yells, walking up to Glenn and Abraham. "Inejra, language." Gabriel warns.
"Oh, piss off." She disregards him with a wave of her hand. "You guys are so stupid! You're worrying about saving the world right now but you can't do that if you're dead! We need to be focusing on that Gareth dude or whatever and making a plan to stop and kill them!"
She pauses and turns to Eugene, "Look, I have no doubt in my mind that you have the cure or whatever because you look like a goddamn nerd, but here's the thing. It'll cure nothing!"
"Yes-"
"Don't interrupt me!" She yells to Abraham. "Think about it. There are more Sickos than there are people by like...capita or whatever. It's gonna take for ever to cure this shit, but as long as there are Sickos and people like...that, nothing is going to change! People and Sickos are just gonna continue to eat people, whether there's a cure or not!"
"Then we may as well start now." Abraham says.
"I have an idea." Tara voices, stepping forward. She turns to Abraham, "You stay and help just one more day, I'll go with you to DC no matter what." She turns to everyone, "Okay?"
It's quiet before Abraham rasps, "Glenn and Maggie, too."
Rick steps forward, "No."
"Good luck, then. I'm not interested in breaking up what you have here. Rosita grab your gear." He speaks without turning to her.
"Abraham-" "Now." He turns to Eugene who is sitting in a pew, refusing to look at any of us. "Eugene let's go." He doesn't respond so Abraham tries again. "Eugene. Move it."
"I don't want to."
"Now." Abraham's irritated words come out through gritted teeth.
"Okay." Eugene complies, standing up. He walks awkwardly past all of us and to the door.
When Abraham turns to walk away, Rick speaks up. "You're not takin' the bus."
Abraham stops and takes a deep breath, "Try to stop me." It's quiet and motionless for a moment as Abraham's words seep in.
Rick suddenly begins walking toward Abraham who hands Eugene his gun at the sound of Rick's footsteps.
Glenn quickly runs to them yelling, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!" He scarcely stands in the middle of them and pushes them away from each other. "Hey, hey, hey!"
He nods to Rick before turning to Abraham. "You stay-you stay and help us, and we will go with you."
"No." Rick orders.
"It's not your call." Glenn says before turning back to Abraham. "You stay, help us."
Abraham thinks for a moment before nodding, "Half a day. Come high noon, we're taillights. I'm not waitin' for the other damn shoe to drop."
"And we will leave with you." Maggie says from behind Rick.
Abraham nods and says, "Twelve hours. Then we go." He grabs his gun from Eugene and walks past Rick.
We all walk outside the church to trick the dicks from Terminus. We left to make them think we're going to the elementary school but really, we're hiding behind bushes.
We left the kids, Tyreese, Sasha, Eugene, and Gabriel stay back. Bob died an hour ago.
"There." I whisper, pointing to a group of people sneaking up to the doors of the church.
"Should we go now and get 'em before they get in or..." Damien asks.
"No." Rick whispers quickly, "We wait."
The door of the church gets picked open and the group all makes their way in, not bothering to close the door.
I can't hear what they're saying but I can hear a mans gun cock. My breath hitches in anticipation.
We wait for another minute before Rick whispers, "Okay, go."
As we silently approach the doors we hear Gareth whisper, "We'll hit the hinges." And we see all of his people's guns pointed to the door where our people are.
Rick slowly walks in first, I follow behind him, and everyone else follows behind me.
I shoot the two people standing at the office door with my silenced pistol and Gareth and whoever is left, quickly turn to look at the darkness that engulfs us.
"Put your guns on the floor."
"Rick I will fire into the office if you don't lower your-AH!" Gareth screams as Rick shoots his fingers off. He whimpers and screams in pain as Rick walks into view, the rest of us staying back.
"Put your guns on the floor and kneel." Rick orders, his revolver held high.
When the man next to Gareth doesn't do anything, Gareth grunts out, "Do what he says." And kneels.
The rest of the men, and a woman, kneel though the man next to Gareth still refuses.
I walk to the right of Rick and begin slowly approaching the woman who is now kneeling in front of me, though isn't facing me.
"Martin, there's no choice here." Gareth groans.
"Yeah there is." Martin says.
"Wanna bet?" Abraham asks, approaching him and aiming his gun at his head.
Finally, Martin steps his gun down and kneels.
I step to the side of the woman and aim my gun right above her ear. Her hands tremble and she refuses to look at me. I scoff, "Oh don't give me that shit. You ate a goddamn person, have some tits."
She looks at me with her eyes wide, "I-I didn't-they-" "Jesus shut up." I groan. She nods quickly and turns to look at Rick, who is now standing in front of Gareth.
"No point in begging, right?" Gareth asks.
Rick pauses before saying, "No." His voice cold and icy.
"Still, you could have killed us when you came in. There had to be a reason for that."
"We didn't want to waste the bullets." Rick states.
"We used to help people, we saved people. Things changed. They came in and-" Gareth cuts his words off with a groan of pain.
He whimpers and continues, "After that...I know that you've been out there but I can see it. You don't know what it is to be hungry. You don't have to do this, we can walk away. And we will never cross paths again. I promise you."
"But you'll cross someone's path. You'd do this to anyone, right? Besides, I already made you a promise." Rick unsheathes his machete and smacks it on Gareth's face as he screams, "NO!"
The woman before me takes that as her queue to grab my gun and smack me in the face with it. I grunt in pain as my head quickly turns to the side. She aims it at my head but I grab it just as she fires and I kick her in the stomach.
She hunches over with a grunt but quickly shoves me up against a wall and punches me. "How's this for tits huh?!" She yells, kneeing me in the stomach and slamming my head into the wall behind me. She punches me in the nose and continues to punch me.
I groan as I grab her hand to pause her punching and headbutt her, then I grab her arm and snap it over my leg. She screams in agony as her arm breaks and I slam her head into the wall three times before she falls to the ground, dead.
I pant as I stare down at her dead body, blood leaks from one of my nostrils.
My head pounds though I've got too much adrenaline to care.
I grab my knife and stab it into her head multiple times, blood splattering on the wall behind her and my face and hands.
I straighten up and blow hair out of my face. "Asshole." I mutter, wiping the blood from my nose though it just smears it to the left.
"Damn, you're sexy," Damien whispers. I scoff but don't respond.
Something shines in a holster on her belt and I pause. I slowly crouch down and pull my whip out of her belt. "No fuckin' way." I whisper.
"It could have been us." Rick rasps.
All of us walk into the office to make sure everyone is alright.
"Jesus, Adrian!" Alyssa exclaims, jumping up and approaching me.
"Woah." Inejra whispers. "What the hell happened?" Alyssa asks, wiping blood from my nose.
"Oh you know, a woman not following the girls-for-girls code. Nothing too bad."