Lizzy starts to feel ill, so I volunteer to go and escort her to the quarantine cell block.
I bang my fist on the metal door and Carol—with a bandana around her face as an attempt to avoid breathing in the sickness—appears in the small square window in the door.
The door opens and Lizzy steps into the cell block, looking pale. "I don't feel very good. Em helped me find my way."
Carol raises an eyebrow at me and tells Lizzy to settle in one of the cells. Carol turns to me. "Ember, you're smarter than risking your own health right now." She whispers in a low voice. "Be honest, are you okay?"
I begin to regret coming. The stomach cramps and unrest probably is just a period thing. "Nah, it's just my...time of month I confused it with." I pause as Carol eyes me worriedly and suspiciously for a moment. She nods and closes the door. That's possibly the lamest excuse I ever made.
I start to make my way down the corridor and double over coughing. In cough into my elbow until it ends—leaving my lungs burning.
I remove my arm from my now wet mouth, only to see my blue sweater sleeve covered in red liquid that gleams in the daylight leaking through the tiny windows.
The door swings open and Carol steps out. "Ember..." She sighs. I nod, standing up as straight as my folding stomach allows, and stride down the hall and step through the cell block of death threshold.
—————
Carl's POV-
Ember never came back from the Cell Block O' Death.
Beth glances toward me with solemn eyes as she cradles my baby sister in her arms.
Beth and I sit cross-legged next to each other and Zaylee is hanging out with the other kids and comforting Mika.
"She might've gone hunting with Daryl." I suggest.
Beth shakes her head. "Carl..." She sighs. "Don't you think she'd...I don't know, drop by and be like 'By the way, I'm going hunting and not going to be bedridden in my death bed in a dank cell block.'" I stare at her, shocked. Beth never acts this way. "Sorry..." Beth says. "Glenn is sick too. And if he dies...what will happen to Maggie?"
"Glenn won't die." I assure her and she nods.
"I believe you." She smiles to herself and inhales a deep breath. "It'll all work out. Yeah, it will. In the meantime, we all got jobs to do, Carl."