"I lock the doors at night. I always lock the doors at night. I always lock the doors at night." He said three times as he looked at Rick. "They started coming, my congregation. Atlanta was bombed the night before. They were scared. They were- They were looking for a safe place, a place that was safe. And it was so early. It was so early. And the doors were still locked." He looked like he was about to cry and he kept repeating everything.
"It was my choice. There were so many of them. They were banging on the shudders and door trying to get in. The dead heard them. Women. Children." He said with a whimper. I couldn't believe he did that. "Entire families torn apart, begging me for mercy." He was crying now. How could he not. He hurt all those people who were innocent. "Damning me to hell. I buried there bones. Buried it all. The Lord sent you here to finally punish me." He fell on the floor. "I'm damned. I was damned before. I always lock the doors. I always lock the doors." He sobbed.
"There's someone outside. Lying in the grass." Maggie said as Sasha ran out. I heard her yelling Bob's name.
They came back in and Bob's leg was chopped off. They laid him down and we surrounded him. I had my hand over my mouth in surprise.
"I was in the graveyard and they got me. They took me to a place. It looked like a school. It was that guy Gareth, and four other ones." He said breathing shakily. "They were eating my leg right in front of me." He said trying not to cry. "Like it was nothing. All proud like they had it all figured out."
"Did they have Daryl and Carol?" Rick asked looking to him.
"Gareth said they drove off." Bob said as he winced lightly.
"He's in pain. Do we have anything?" Sasha asked looking up.
"I have some in my bag from the trip to Athens. I'll go get it." I said as I stood up.
"Save em." Bob cried lightly.
"No." Sasha replied.
"Really." Bob added as I stopped walking. He sat up and moved his shirt to reveal a bite. "It happened at the food bank." He said as Sasha looked in shock. I looked at him sadly.
We always had to loose good people. Why was it always like that. Judith started crying and Carl took her to the back room. I went with him.
"I really thought he didn't do anything that bad." Carl said as he rocked Judith.
"Well everyone does bad things, but he's sorry for them. I guess in a way that's what really matters. He won't do it again so it's okay." I said reassuring myself more then sticking up for Gabriel.
"Still. I just want to find good people you know?" He asked looking at me.
"Me too, but you never can know if someone is good or not." I answered with a small shake of my head.
"Why are you being so pessimistic about it all the sudden?" He asked looking at me with his eyebrows furrowed.
"Because we are only teens and we've done awful things. I'm not the best person. I might not even be a good person anymore." I said crossing my arms.
"You are a good person." He said looking to me. He walked over grabbing my hand lightly. "You are." He said. He was close to me. It made my heart thump hard. I took a deep breath and held his hand back. I nodded and looked down at our hands. I let go and smiled lightly up to him.
"Soon." I said with a nod. "Just a little bit longer." He nodded. He knew what I meant. I'd be ready to tell him soon. Tell him everything.
We walked out after putting Judith down and we saw some of them getting ready to go out.
"What's going on?" Carl asked looking to Rick.
"We are gonna go stop Gareth. We can't have him eating anyone else. There camp isn't to far so we will probably be back in less then an hour." He replied as we both nodded.
"Dad." Carl said before Rick ran away. "Be careful." He said to him as he kissed Carla forehead.
I looked over to see Michonne packing up. "Be safe okay?" I said looking to her. She smiled lightly to me before walking out.
"You both stay in the back room with Tyresse, Gabriel, and Eugene. We will be back soon." Rick said before they walked out. We put all the lights out and went to the back room. Judith was still in her carrier.
I knew how this was gonna work. Carl and I would watch the door. Gabriel and Eugene would whimper and hide like idiots while Rosita kept them safe and Tyresse would watch Judith but still be ready for anything that would come.
We heard the front door creak open. Carl cocked his gun and he tried to hand me one. I shook my head. He held it there and I mouthed 'no.' I couldn't. I held my knife in my hand.
I didn't want to kill people. Living people. You shouldn't ever have to. These people- they were no different from the walkers. They ate other people and I knew if I didn't kill them they'd eat us too. Just like the guy in the cabin.
"Well I guess you know we are here. And we know you're here." A muffled voice of a man said through the door. It must've been Gareth. "And were armed. So there's really no point in hiding anymore."
We all stayed as quiet as we could.
"We've been watching you. We know who's here. There's Bob, unless you've put him to rest already. And Eugene. Rosita. Martins old friends Tyresse and Lyla Rose. Remember him? Yeah we found him in the cabin. It was easy to fill in the little details after watching you guys." The man said as I breathed short staggered and quiet breaths. Carl looked at me, I could see it in my peripheral. He must've known now.
"Let's see we also have Carl and lastly Judith. Rick and the rest walked out with a lot of your guns. Listen we don't want to keep looking and this is a small place. So let's just stop this now before things get more painful then they need to be." The doors started rattling and Rosita out her gun up. "Look we know you're behind one of these two doors and we have more then enough fire power to take down both. Can't imagine that's what y'all want." I heard someone cock their gun. It's must've been Gareth.
"How about the priest? Father you help us wrap this up, and we'll set you free." Gareth said as his voice got louder and closer. "Just open the door and you can go. You can take the baby with you. What do you say?"
And I hoped he said nothing. I looked at him and he kept praying his Rosary. Judith started crying and I went over to her. I picked her up and held her and she was quiet.
"I don't know. Maybe we'll keep the kid." I heard Gareth say as I held on tightly to Judith. She wasn't the first in my mind to decide to speak up. "I'm starting to like this girl." The came over to the door. They were right there, I could feel it. "It's your last chance right now to tell us you're coming out." Gareth warned as if he wasn't going to do the exact seem thing with either option given.
I heard two silenced gunshots. "Put your guns on the floor." I heard mumbled. It was quiet but it sounded like Rick. I still wasn't going to drop my alert just yet.
"Rick we can shot faster into that room then you can shoot us so lower your gun." Gareth said before I heard another and Gareth yelling.
Judith was fussy. I took her away from the door and rocked her lightly. She was just scared, just like me. Rick and Gareth talked more but I couldn't make it out from where I was.
Most of it was Gareth explaining, probably pleading for his life. I knew Rick wouldn't let them go. They were to bad.
Then I heard yelling. Tyresse opened the door to make sure it was us attacking. He didn't move so I guess that meant it was. We heard slices and splatter and hits. It was gory and disgusting.
They walked into the room, most of them with blood splattered around them. They wanted us to get sleep but it was hard to sleep thinking about the dead people outside.
We got up the next morning. I only slept for maybe an hour or two. We walked to the other room where Bob was and we all said our goodbyes.
It was my turn next. "You got your little book?" He asked as I nodded grabbing it out of my pocket. "I want to give you some more advice." He said as I nodded and took out a pen and flipped to an empty page. "If it starts with alge-, noci-, odyn-, or oxy-, its for pain. If it ends in -dynia it's for pain. Got it?" He asked breathing raspily as I wrote it down.
"Yeah." I nodded closing my pen. "Thank you for everything." I smiled to him. He nodded best he could and I got up.
I went outside and saw Glenn and Maggie packing up. "Are you going on a run?" I asked looking to them confused.
"We are going to D.C. with Abraham, Rosita, Eugene, and Tara." Maggie explained looking to me.
"You're leaving?" I asked sadly.
"We made a deal with Abraham. If he stayed the night and helped us with Gareth that we would go with him." Glenn explained looking to me.
I went over to Maggie and hugged her. I let go and hugged Glenn. "Promise to be careful?" I asked looking at them.
"Promise." Maggie nodded with a small smile. I smiled back.
"I'm glad I got to know you two." I smiled. "Hopefully the rest will decide to meet you in DC one day and we can see each other again." I shrugged lightly.
"I hope so." Glenn nodded. I walked away so they could finish packing and I went over to Carl and sat down as he held Judith. Not long after we went outside to see them out.
Rick said we'd be in DC eventually but for now we were staying here. The short bus left with the few on it.
We lost a lot of people today.
The majority of the good ones were alive, but one of them wasn't. It made it all the more sad. We went back inside. They already took out the bodies but there were still blood stains. I stared at one.
"At least we know they won't be able to do what they did to Bob ever again." Carl said as he came from the back room.
"Yeah, I guess." I nodded lightly. "He knew about everything from the cabin." I said quietly looking at the blood.
"Did you kill him in the cabin?" He asked looking at the stain with me.
I wasn't surprised. It was time for him to know, I knew that now. He did too. I looked up at him and he looked at me. I nodded. "He said he was gonna kill Judith. I had to or else-" I shook my head as I looked back at the stain.
"You did what you had to do." He nodded.
"Still think I'm good?" I asked as I played with the bottom of my flannel.
"You are good. You'll always be good." He said looking at me. He grabbed my hand again and I looked at it and grabbed his hand back.
"Thank you." I replied. I wasn't crying and I wasn't mad. I was happy.
Carl made me happy.
And that's why I would be okay. Because I might have killed someone but it wasn't out of anger or hatred or fear. It was to save some one else. It was out of bravery and I did it because I had to. I understood that now.