MADISON'S POV.
"Okay Rick, so you're telling me that the whole world has turned into one of these.... walker things?" I ask.
"Yeah" he simply replys with a shrug.
Looking down at the bloodied corpse on the ground I find it hard not to believe him anymore.
Before I've registered my own reaction, I'm squatting down and putting my face in my hands. There is nothing left.
What are we meant to do?
I thought tears might come, but they don't and I'm glad because I can't be seen crying in front of these people. I can't be weak.
I sigh and quickly stand back up.
"So what now?" I ask, feeling suddenly exhausted.
"We survive. Nothing else matters except to survive, but this man here" he points to a short man with a mullet. "He knows a cure for this, he can fix this and it will all go away, he's a scientist." He continues.
I look at the man he was referring to and a stange expresion crosses his face. Guilt? I don't know. Maybe he's just shy.
"Eugene." He barely waves, his eyes don't touch mine. He keeps them focused on the ground.
"Do you have a home, a place to stay?" I ask them
"We used to. We had a prison, but people came and tried to take it. We're all who survived it...... I'm Maggie by the way." The brown haired woman smiles.
"If we're throwing out names here, then this here is Glenn, standing beside Maggie" he points to the asain. "These people here are Sasha, Bob, Tyreese and Tara" he says pointing to each person.
"You already know Carl and Judith, this is Michonne and Abraham" he says pointing to a woman with dark skin and a katana and a tall man with unusual ginger hair that has a mustache to match it. He skips over Eugene and points to a short, toned woman. Her expression is fierce and unwavering. The kinda look I wanted to have while facing these people but I probably just look as clueless as I feel right now. "This is Rosita and this woman here is Carol and beside her is Daryl." he says pointing to the man with the crossbow
"I'm sorry about your ummm..." I say pointing to his eyebrow that has finally stopped bleeding.
"Are you a fast runner?" He asks
I'm thrown off by his sudden question.
"I dunno, I guess" I reply, unsure.
"Good, cause if you do that again you'd wanna be runnin' " He says with a playful smirk.
I smile at his joke, but I see the seriousness of what he's saying too.
Rick speaks up. "So, what's in those small buildings?"
I wince. I want to get away from here. Not stay longer!
"The bigger house is where the men stayed. You'll most likely find food in there. The smaller building is...." I think I'm about to get sick just thinking of it.
"The smaller building is what?" Rick presses.
"..... Thats where they liked to..." my voice trails off but Rick doesn't make me finish. I guess he already knows.
"You'll find weapons in there, maybe some more ammo." Nick finally speaks up.
Rick seems pleased knowing they were going to get more guns.
"Okay guys, we're gonna go in, but keep your eyes peeled incase any other guys decided not to come out and fight, they'll be hiding if they're still in there" Rick tells his group.
They walk towards the buildings.
I turn to my family. There are tears steaming down my mothers face but my brother and sister are now quiet, shocked.
"Are you coming?" A voice asks from behind me.
The voice shocks me and I turn quickly towards it. It's Carl. He's still carrying Judith.
"Umm.... yeah, we're coming." I reluctantly follow them.
We all walk towards the group that is standing outside the building. I don't talk to Carl on the way over but I do glance at him a few times. As we are walking over I look at my arm, there is blood on it, but it's not the walkers blood, it's mine. It's coming from the cut on my arm from earlier. I must have reopened the scab when I was trying to kill the walker.
When I look up I see that Carl is also starring at my arm, but we're close to the group so he doesn't ask about it. I pull my sleeve down as far as I can to cover it, annoyed at his gawking.
"Okay, so me, Daryl, Glenn and Michonne will go in and clear it. We'll call down to you when we know it's safe to come up."
They say no more before entering and we wait impatiently.
After about two minutes I get tired of waiting, so I walk towards the door.
"Where are you going?" Maggie asks at the same time a hard hand comes down on my shoulder, locking me in place. I glare up at Abraham, the ginger mustached man with the freakishly large muscles. I swat his arm away and clench my teeth with frustration.
"I'm goin' inside, if any of those men are in there, I want to be the one to kill them." I state
She doesn't object she just nods at Abraham and he releases me.
I kinda like her, she's okay.
"No Madison, don't go in!" my mother speaks for the first time, practically begs but I ignore her. She doesn't come after me either.
I walk into the house and up the stairs with Abraham hot on my tail. I guess he doesn't trust easily. That's okay, neither do I. We walk into what looks like a sitting room. I realise I only have the rock and nothing else to protect myself. So I scan the room for something to use as a weapon and I find an old radiator and I kick the bottom pipe loose and the bend to pull it from the other rusting metal. It makes a loud noise and someone rushes into the room.
The woman with the katana comes in and she's about to take my head off until she realises who I am.
I struggle to remember her name. There's just so many of them to remember.
"Geeeez .... what the hell Madison? I almost took your head off your shoulders. What the hell are you doing up here?" She snaps.
Rick, Daryl and Glenn walk into the room but I answer her question anyways.
"Because if anyones up here I want to be the one to kill them." I state coldly
"They must have messed you guys up badly." She murmurs.
"You have no idea." I reply. "Is the place clear?" I ask more loudly, for the others.
"Yeah, you can call down to them and tell them to grab anything we need." Rick says to Daryl.
I watch as he jogs down the stairs and tells them to grab anything they need. They all come inside and do just that. I tell my family that it's okay to come in and I know they don't want to so it takes some convincing, but they eventually climb the stairs.
When they're upstairs their eyes scan the sitting room and my eyes land in the same thing there's see. Food. Lots and lots of food piled on the table. That must be whatever they found in the house.
"What?" Daryl bellows roughly.
I didn't realise how long I was gawking at the food until he called me out on it.
Abbie speaks up for me.
"It's just we haven't eaten in two days, sir" She talks in a quiet voice and I know it's because she's nervous around these people.
"Oh" he says, clearly unsure what to do. Thankfully Maggie rolls her eyes at him, walks over to the table and grabs two cans. Maggie bends down so she can look at Abbie in her eyes.
"Here, sweety, you must be starving. Well, if your staying with our group then you won't be so hungry, we survive and to survive you gotta eat, right?" She asks
Abbie nods, while Maggie hands her the cans.
"Thank you, miss."
"My name is Maggie and you can come to me if you need help, I know some of these guy are big and scary, especially him." She says nodding her head towards Daryl, messing with him. Abbie nods her head and a smile plays on her lips. I haven't seen her smile properly in years.
"Thanks" Abbie mumbles again and skips towards me with the cans of food. I'm rewarded by a huge smile off Abbie and I return the gesture. As Abbie skips away to find a can opener I walk over to Maggie.
"Thank you for that. She was only a few weeks old when we were taken. It's strange seeing her so...happy? Relaxed?"
Maggie bites her lip and a frown creases her forehead.
"What?" I ask, not trusting her.
She just shakes her head.
"What?" I snap again.
"It's just you're all just kids."
I shrug. "So?"
"Well, I just, I hope you stay with us."
"You don't even know us." I accuse.
She sighs. "You better go eat now, you're probably starving."
Just to prove her right my stomach gives a loud rumble and she laughs, says an awkward goodbye and walks too quickly towards Glenn. I walk over to Abbie who is busy passing the cans back and forth between Nick and our mother. I keep my eyes on Maggie and that shady leader, Rick. As I'm watching everyone carefully, analyzing them, I notice a pair of eyes starring back at me, doing exactly as I am. They're piercing blue and almost impossible to look away from. I tear my gaze away and turn my focus back to my family and try to ignore the feeling of the eyes piercing into the back of my head.
"Hey Abbie, pass me a can. I'm starving!"