The Governor raised Michonne's katana, and swung it down. In one fell swoop, Marliya's head was hanging off of her neck. Brooks' scream drowned out that of Michonne. Michonne fell to her side, screaming and crying as she watched her twin sister get murdered right in front of her. Brooks collapsed to her knees as she watched him swing down the katana again, completley ridding Marliya's body of her head. Her scream was loud, ear shattering, throat breaking, blood curdling. Hot tears streamed from her eyes and soaked her cheeks. Her body wracked with sobs as the mother she loved so dearly fell dead, right in front of her eyes.
Nobody could even comfort the girl, everybody simply picked up their guns and began shooting. Brooks' head fell downwards, she couldn't do anything other than sob and wrap her arms around herself. It was all far too much to handle. Brooks had never experienced grief in that sense, she'd lost people she cared for, sure... But never something like this. Up until then, she'd been rather lucky with the people around her not dying... Of course, that luck had to come to an end.
Hershel picked her up from under her arms, and began dragging her backwards, out of the firing line. Brooks forced herself to stand, and help them get to cover. "I'm so sorry." Sophia managed to say amongst the chaos, hot tears in her own eyes at the fear.
"That goddamn tank is comin'!" Merle yelled, trying to disguise his own grief. Him and Marliya were in love for a time, those twelve years ago. Sure, he loved her more than she did him, but that didn't matter to him. Though he didn't feel that way about her anymore, his nostalgia still forced tears to punch at his eyes.
Brooks was looking down, when suddenly two hands were grabbing the front of her shirt, and fisting in the fabric to get her attention. She looked up and saw Carl, staring desperately into her eyes. "I am sorry about your mother, but you cannot grieve right now. We have people coming in with tanks, and guns. I need you to pick up a gun and fight, Brooks! You need to fight!"
"I can't." She cried, shaking her head as another sob left her. Her knees went weak, so Carl simply pushed her up against the bricks they were hiding behind, squeezing her shirt almost to the point of ripping it.
Carl shook her slightly. "Please, I can't lose you!" Brooks looked up to him and noticed he was trying to say something, but couldn't get the words out. "Go inside, and round everybody up! We need to go, now! We can't beat them!" He settled on saying, pushing his emotions to the side lines. He bit down on his bottom lip, unable to ignore the thought: woah, this is how I'm spending my fourteenth birthday. Great.
Brooks didn't say anything, but she nodded. She managed to find strength in her legs as she ran back into the prison. Most people were making their way out of the prison to see what was going on. "Get to the bus!" Brooks yelled, remembering the emergency protocol she'd been taught. "Grab your necessities, and get to the bus! Go, go, go!" She screamed at everyone, running around to try and find out who had Judith. Brooks knew the toddler should be with Cam, so that's who she was looking for.
She knew Carl was right, she knew she had to push aside her grief. It didn't matter how badly she wanted to crawl into a ball and sob, because it would be selfish to do that when she could potentially save lives. So, Brooks ignored her broken heart, and ran around the whole prison... Well, until her leg betray her in the middle of D block. She screamed out at the white hot pain, collapsing to the ground. "What the hell's happening?" A man asked.
Brooks looked up from the ground, holding onto her leg in agony. "We all need to get to the bus, it's the Governor!" Brooks responded, recognising the man as Mark from Woodbury. "My leg's injured, I need-" Before she could continue, Mark was running away to safety. A deep sigh left Brooks as everyone from D block just ran around her, leaving her there on the ground. "Help, I need help!" Brooks yelled to the people who paid no mind to the injured pre-teen in agony on the ground.
"Brooks!" She heard, before someone was picking her up from under her arms. Brooks leaned into the person, before she turned and saw Nancy there with Lizzie, Mika, and a confused Mrs Kingston. Mrs Kingston was holding onto the hands of Lizzie and Mika, both Samuels sisters ready to take care of her. "What's happening?" Nancy asked, helping Brooks hobble.
"Governor's back." Brooks responded, accepting the help.
Lizzie gasped in fear. "But I thought he was dead!"
Shaking her head, Brooks groaned. "Apparently not."
"Well, shit, we gotta go." Nancy stated, before picking Brooks up bridal style.
Mrs Kingston gasped. "Language, young lady!"
"Shi- uh, sorry Mrs Kingston. Damn, Nance, you've been workin' out." Brooks acknowledged.
The woman couldn't help but smile, before she turned to the Samuels sisters, and the old lady. "Girls, stay close to me." Nancy, carrying Brooks, and leading the other girls, began running out of the prison. The woman acted as a siren for Brooks, so she could rest her head and her voice. "Governor's here! Run, everybody, run to the bus!" She screamed over and over as the group of five made their way out. Even when nobody was about Nancy screamed it, just in case her voice echoed down the halls to a confused member of the large group. Nancy was just a kind-hearted, selfless woman like that.
Just as they got out into the courtyard, they saw Sebastian and Hershel running towards them... Away from a herd of walkers. "My leg's feelin' better." Brooks said, jumping down from the blonde woman. Truth was that it still hurt, but she didn't want to slow anybody down. "Where is everyone?" Brooks yelled, only noticing those two along with the walkers.
"We'll explain on the way to the back exit!" Sebastian called as everyone began running to the emergency exit at the back.
Hershel was the first to speak, huffing slightly, as he gripped his gun tightly. "I saw my Beth and Maggie get on the bus. I lost sight of it for a while, but when me and Sebastian got there it was taking off. Then the walkers came, and now we're here."
"What about Judith? Sophia? Carl, Rick, Merle, Daryl, Cam?" Brooks nervously listed as they got to the back gate, and Lizzie was attempting to undo the wire. Brooks was terrified, looking back to the fast approaching herd of about twenty walkers.
"Cam had Judith." Sebastian responded. "I think I saw him with Tyreese. I assume the others got to the bus."
"Hurry up, Lizzie." Mika cried in fear, tightly holding onto Mrs Kingston.
"We'll be okay." Lizzie smiled. Nobody noticed that she was going intentionally slow. She wanted the walkers to catch up. She wanted her point to proven. She wanted everybody to know, that walkers are people too.
"Oh, move!" Brooks yelled in frustration, shoving her out of the way to get the wire from the fence in ten seconds. She pried it open, and Mika was first through, then Sebastian, then Nancy pushed Lizzie through, then Brooks, and then Nancy insisted Hershel went through before her. Hershel and Nancy were assisting the ninety year old lady to get through, before Nancy was all but trying to jump through to escape the walkers.
Nancy was half was out when she felt the bite. A loud scream erupted from her as the walker bit down on her shoulder. "Fucking shit, that hurts!" She screamed, trying to get through.
"Nancy!" Brooks yelled out with a voice crack of fear, grabbing her mother's knife from her belt and reaching around to stab the walker. Hershel and Sebastian pulled Nancy through as they began running off. Mika and Lizzie were already getting away, assisting Mrs Kingston.
Brooks stayed beside the hole in the fence, stabbing as many walkers as she could. "Brooks, come on!" Sebastian yelled as himself and Hershel were helping a crying Nancy hobble away from the prison of death.
She killed the seventh one, blocking up the hole in the fence before she ran after them. "We have to get to the road, find the bus." Mika pointed out.
"I'm bit! I'm bit!" Nancy sobbed, accepting her fait.
Brooks bit down on her bottom lip in sadness, she didn't want to cry for the woman in front of her, and they still had to get the hell outta Dodge. "I'm so sorry, Nance." Brooks let out, sympathy racking her tone. There was no book she could read for this situation.
/----------\
Nancy's infection spread faster than what Brooks remembered from Jim's infection. She found it too hard to walk, so the group had to take a break in the forest. They'd found a nice stream for her to lay beside, her head on Brooks' lap while Brooks ran her fingers through the woman's blonde hair. She was pale, her face was glistening with sweat and her breathing was odd. Sometimes she'd be breathing so deeply, Brooks was wondering if the infection had killed her already, other times her breathing was so shallow and so fast, Brooks was afraid she would have a heart attack.
Mika was watching sadly, Lizzie eagerly anticipated the transformation, Sebastian was collecting water for her, Mrs Kingston was making a daisy chain, while Hershel's thoughts were focused on his daughters. He pitied Nancy, sure, but all he could think about were his two little girls on that bus without him. "Brooks, I don't want the infection to kill me." She whispered.
Brooks nodded, misunderstanding what Nancy meant. "I'm so sorry that this happened to you."
"No, I mean..." The woman trailed off, coughing horribly. "The hallucinations will start, soon. I've been through some things in my life that I don't want to remember in my final moments. I'm ready now."
Brooks exchanged looks with Sebastian, he turned, the water falling from his hands and back into the stream. Brooks cleared her throat slightly, before speaking. "I- I'm sorry, Nance? You want... You want one of us to kill you?"
"Hershel's gun." She nodded, staring up at the green canopy of trees. "Please, while I'm still lucid. I'm thinking about my husband, and how happy we were on our honeymoon." Hershel subtly passed the gun to Sebastian, who subtly handed it to Brooks, so that Nancy didn't see or know when it was coming. "We were in Paris... Oh, how happy he was to finally get to the city of love. It- it had been his dream to go there, and make love on a balcony over looking the Eiffel tower." Nobody held the oversharing against her, after all, she was about to die. "My Charles was so kind to me. He was so beautiful." She had to stop to cough again, some blood erupted from her mouth and blended with her cherry red lips.
"It sounds lovely, Nancy." Brooks spoke, softly, cocking the gun while a tear rolled down her cheek and hit Nancy's forehead. She used Nancy's awfully loud cough attack to disguise the quiet click.
Nancy hummed. "Don't cry for me, dearie. I get to see my Charles again. We spent our honeymoon in Paris, ya know? Oh, how happy he was to finally get there. I love you, so much, Charles. I-"
And with those words, Brooks pulled the trigger, her hand was practically vibrating as her whole body shook violently with guilt and disgust. The bullet went straight through her temple, and into her brain. A loud cry escaped Brooks at her actions. "Why would you do that?" Lizzie screamed, standing up. She hadn't caught on to the passing of the gun, or what Brooks was prepared to do. "You killed her! You killed her!" Lizzie screamed, crying loudly as her breathing intensified.
"Look at the flowers, Lizzie." Mika comforted her sister as Brooks' attention ripped away from the sisters.
Mrs Kingston stood up with the help of the tree beside her, and approached. With a tired groan, she kneeled beside Brooks, who had a dead woman's head on her lap. Mrs Kingston smiled, putting the daisy chain over Nancy's head, like a flower crown. The old woman smiled, brightly. "When she wakes up, she'll be so delighted!"
Brooks tore her eyes away from the old woman, and down to the dead woman in her lap, her red lips still painted in a smile... Her blue eyes still open and staring upwards. They were fixed and unmoving, it looked so unnatural. A small cry escaped Brooks at the fact she'd just killed her friend. Brooks took two fingers, and shut the woman's eyelids, out of respect. The Dixon girl looked to Sebastian for some sort of support, but he was just staring at the corpse. The words he spoke came off cold, and unlike him. "We'll see her again, soon."
Forty one walkers.
Two humans.