❛ YOU PROMISED. ❜
42. Surviving
❛ SEASON 06 EPISODE 02 ❜
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"Oh..!" I exclaimed, flinching away from the door that swung open which revealed just the person I came here for. "Ron! Uh, I.. I was there when.. when it happened. I wanted to check up on you but, I thought you'd need a little.." Ron sped past while scoffing, knocking his shoulder into mine harshly.
I sighed, following after him.
"You've never not been there for me. Now, I'm gonna return the favor." I grabbed his upper arm and pulled him back, trying to make him look at me, but he didn't budge.
"You can't push me away because I won't go anywhere. Listen, your dad was awful. To you and your mom and brother. But he was still your dad. I get it, you know I do. Just talk to me, please?"
He huffed a deep breath and his shoulders dropped drastically. He turned to face me, locking eyes; and when he does, I saw the rage hidden within them. I couldn't detect the sadness for his father's death just yet.
"Can we go to your place?" He uses a low voice and clenched his jaw, trying to hold back from saying something... but I didn't know what.
"Yeah.. yeah, let's go." I mutter, stepping a little bit ahead of him to lead.
With only a few steps forward, he stopped, causing me to do the same when I noticed he wasn't following behind anymore. The
question of why stung the tip of my tongue
but when I turned to ask, his eyes weren't even on me, he was staring at something
above me with veins popping out from his neck and clenched fists. Spinning around, curiously, I found what he was looking at and I became disappointed when my eyes landed on it— them.
Carl and Enid were sitting together at the top of the guard tower, her hand on top of his. I didn't know what to make of it, but I knew it made me feel sick, I knew it made me jealous and upset. But, even though it was a terrible sight, my mind was telling me to just trust him. Still... holding hands was a bit much.
"Come.. Come on, Ron." I mumble, trying to drag my eyes away from the scene. His lips tilted into a frown and his eyes fell on me; I sigh, grabbing his arm and tugging him away.
The more I think of it, the more it angered me. It seemed so natural with them, like it has happened a million times before I saw it. Thoughts of them doing that behind my back.. it looms over me like a shadow; the handholding, the proximity is what angers me the most. It crept its way into my brain at the worst time— which is now.
"Aren't you gonna mark it?" The sound of Kass's voice drags me away from my own mind and back to the situation I should be focusing on.
"Uh.. Yeah." I murmur while approaching their targets with a marker. "Alright, uh.. I think Kassala, you need to aim higher and Jeremiah, you need to stop hesitating. You need to follow through." I explain to them while marking their targets. "Try it again."
With bitterness Jeremiah points at the gun attached to my hip, "Give us an example."
"Alright." I shrug pulling out the gun and rolling my neck. I smile nostalgically as I aim it; thinking of the farm, back when it was me learning how to shoot with Daryl teaching me. Brat. "How many examples you want?"
"Don't be a show off." Jeremiah scoffs.
"You're asking for something impossible." The smile on my lips stretches wider as I muttered that out.
"Just shoot."
I sigh, focusing on the center of the target before closing my left eye and pulling the trigger just seconds after. Bullseye. I open my left eye and cast Jeremiah an arrogant glance, shooting the target again. Another Bullseye. The concentration I have on the target drops immediately and suddenly; a noise coming from within the walls made me stop.
I perked up like a dog and turn to the two people behind me, "Did you hear that?" I ask.
"Huh?"
"Hear what?"
Another distant noise whisked through the air; this time it was clearer, it sounded like someone screaming. "Alright, something's happening, which means I get you both to the house and figure it out there." I mutter while checking my guns ammo. "Don't go running off, alright, stay beside me. And I don't care what or whoever it is, save your ammo; nip them in the leg and run." I turn away after getting nods in response.
I choke on air as I turned around, my eyes landing on an unfamiliar, dirty man with a machete clutched in his hands. Because of reflexes, I shot him in the thigh, and while watching him fall, I shoot him through the head without a second thought.
I crouch down and search the area around us, approaching him. "Okay, so we're just letting everyone inside now, aren't we?" I bend down and take his machete from his cold, dead hands. "Problem after problem after problem." I mutter bitterly.
The air thickens, morphing into a cloud of fog making it hard to see past; it would be especially difficult for us to see those who invaded the wall and now coming after us. But, because we watch our backs and hold our triangular formation, we're safe within each other. The terrified screams and cries of Alexandrian women and men whisked through the fog, making us shiver.
"We almost there?" Kassala asks, gripping her gun a little tighter.
"Fogs clearing and I see Jessie's house.." I say squinting as if it was going to help me see better. "We have to get to Rick's place. Carl is gonna need help protecting—" The sound of crashing and a loud horn cuts me off. "What the hell is that?!"
"I think it's a horn." Jeremiah sassed.
"Not the time, Jer." I scoff before nodding at Rick's house, gesturing at it, practically telling them to run and as they do, I make sure to jog behind closely.
The back door, which is usually unlocked, is the first place we go to, to keep us from being seen by them. I jimmy the knob and force it to open, hardly needing to put any strength in. I shoo them in before stepping inside myself and locking the door behind me.
"Carl?" I call out desperately, placing my gun back on my hip. "Carl, you hear that? It's gonna draw walkers to us!" I speak to the air around me.
"Kendall, you okay?" Carl asked before I could even round the corner, hugging me when I do.
I sigh in relief, tightening my hold around him only to loosen it when I see he wasn't alone. Enid's with him— of course. I drop my arms at my sides, backing out the hug, and clearing my throat awkwardly.
"You guys okay?" I wipe my hands down my pants, sharing the look with Enid.
"Yeah.. We're okay. And so's Judith." Carl answers, drawing my attention away from her.
"Good." I hum, crossing my arms. "Oh.. I think the horn stopped... I should help the ones who need it because seems like your help is covered."
He caught my wrist and held me in place, "You're staying here." His words and how he says it upsets me more. "You'll be safe here, with us."
"No, Enid is safe here." I throw my arm to point at her, then the other two. "Jeremiah and Kassala are safe here— with us. I can take care of myself." I jerk my wrist from his hold and head to the back door.
I pulled the door open only a crack before it slams in my face, forcing me to let it go and flinch away. His palms flatten against it, keeping it shut and nailing me between him and the door.
As he pleads he leans in closer and kisses his nose against mine, and because of our lips being just only centimeters away, the breaths his takes tickles them. "Ken.. stay here please."
I sigh, lowering my head. "I can't.. I can't. I'll lose my mind sitting and waiting; you have more than enough help to keep Jude safe. And.." The words got clogged in my throat. It was an explanation, the one that tells him why, but when I looked over his shoulder at the why I decide to swallow it down. "And I'll be back, okay?"
I kiss his cheek longingly before slipping out the door.
The sound of my heart overworking itself is attacked by the sound of terror, pushing me to focus. I gulp, swallowing my heavy breaths at an attempt to breathe steadily. I, instead of helping right away, rush behind the houses and head to the third one down— mine.
Click!
After cautiously peeking in the home and seeing nothing or nobody that could harm me, I creep in slowly, closing and locking the door silently. The machete attached to my hip, the one I had stole from that man, is now in my hand, ready to pounce when needed.
I whistled after tightening my hold on the machete, stepping around cautiously with suspicions rising. The familiar tune is one used to call for my dog, Kip, but he didn't come.
"Fuck." I murmur, twirling the machete. I could feel something was wrong, and that feeling worsened when I didn't even hear my dog. "Kip, where are you?" I whisper.
A singular noise makes me straighten; the sound of floorboards creaking was almost inaudible and I almost didn't catch it but I did. And because of it, the house stilled in silence which causes the air to stiffen with tension.
Whomever did it didn't do it again.
I groan noiselessly, clenching my jaw and racking my brain with ways on how to get the upper hand in this kind of situation. In seconds, like lightening crackling, an idea skims the grooves of my brain as my eyes fall on an empty glass sitting on top of the shelf closest to me. With quiet footsteps, I sneak into the dining room and snatch the cup off the shelf; afterwards, I hid behind the wall near the entry way, flattening my back against it.
After exhaling deeply and rocking side to side on the heels of my shoes, I throw the glass at the wall across from me and wait.
As quickened footsteps shoot toward me I get ready for them, clenching my machete and jumping out when it was time. I shout as my weapon impales them, taking away their oxygen and replacing it with uneven, ragged breaths of air. The woman reaches for me pathetically which makes me push the machete deeper into her chest, hoping she'd die quicker.
"Fuck you." I seethe, applying a multitude of pressure on my arms because I dragged the machete upward, toward her neck, just to tug it out when I see the life in her eyes drain. I kill her permanently seconds after she thumps on the ground lifelessly. "And my dog better be alive." I spat.
After passing her bloodied figure multiple times, to find Kip, I covered her up with a blanket from the couch. Looking at all the damage I did is somehow appalling to me.
"Kip.. Buddy, come out." I call, whistling for him. "It's me, baby, come out..!"
Alive and uninjured but scared is the way Kip was found; hiding in Messiah's room, under her dresser. I felt an insane amount of relief, hugging him tight, nearly crying because of panic. But afterwards, I had to hid him in my closet for his safety; laying him on a folded cover beside the cage we were gifted by a neighbor, but never used.
I wipe her blood from my machete before leaving the house, tucking it in the belt on my hip again.
Reaching the road, my head whips toward the sound of gunfire and a man screaming with pain. Stepping down the stairs of the house I refused to be in, Carl went to help Ron from an intruder while Enid stands at the door and watches. The intruder forced Carl to kill him when he tried to reach for the gun. Ron couldn't've looked any more upset when he notices them together.
I scoff, "Bullshit," turning away from the scene and heading to the gate.
The amount of disfigured bodies and parts of people I pass were too many to count. I ignored them, I squeeze my eyes shut and ignore them. Hands separated from wrists, arms and waists, necks and heads, all of it spread out throughout the town sliced and diced. It disgusts me, wholly.
And when I arrive at the gate, I see it had already been closed. It was over and done. The screams and cries have stopped, fires were put out, the smoke in the air cleared, and those people were dead or had left. It was done, but that feeling of anguish and fear stayed and it wasn't finished with me.
announcement— i have been planning on going to the military for months now, and it's one of the reasons why i've been busy. I'm planning on leaving sometime in Jan, or Feb, but it depends on whether or not the job I want is available. I wanna finish the story for you guys, because you guys deserve it but if i don't finish it, i'll be in Basic Military Training (BMT) for nearly two months. i don't wanna make you wait but it's probably what i'll have to do. i'm sorry if that happens, guys.
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