Mom gave me the frame of her belt, and I sharpened it against the splintery floor of the train car. Rick gave Carl his, and he knelt beside me, turning it into a weapon.
"Did you see Judith?" I asked him.
Carl bowed his head. "After the battle, when I went to find her, she was gone. Blood was all over her carseat. She wasn't in it. I should've gotten to her sooner. I should've protected her. I couldn't."
"We found each other," I said. "We'll find her too."
Daryl looked through the cracks in the door. "Got four of them pricks coming our way."
"You all know what to do. Go for their eyes first. Then their throats," Rick said.
I stood with one foot in front of the other, holding the weapon I created, and with my other hand ready to punch.
"Put your backs to the walls on either side of the car now," a man yelled from outside.
When the top of the train car opened, something dropped from the ceiling.
"Move!" Abraham yelled.
I threw myself to the floor. The smoke blinded me, and I coughed, trying to get it out of my lungs. When it cleared, Rick, Daryl, Bob, and Dad were gone.
...................................................................
Abraham banged against the wall. "What the hell is going on?"
Michonne looked through the door and smiled. "Someone hit them."
"Maybe our people got free," Sasha said.
"My dad's gonna be back. They all are," Carl said.
Mom held Dad's watch and contemplated sharpening it. "They are. And we need to get ready to fight our way out with them when they do."
"We're stronger than they are. We learned how to be. We're gonna make it out," I said.
"What's the cure, Eugene?" Sasha asked.
"It's classified. Even if I told you all, even if I provided step-by-step instructions complete with illustrations and a well-composed FAQ and I went red-ring, the cure would still die with me."
"I'm not gonna let that happen," Abraham said.
"You don't owe us anything. Not yet. But we just want to hear it," Sasha said.
"I was part of a ten person team at the Human Genome Project to weaponise diseases to fight weaponized diseases. Pathogenic microorganisms with pathogenic microorganisms. Fire with fire. Interdepartmental drinks were had, relationships made, information shared. I am keenly aware of all the details behind fail-safe delivery systems to kill every living person on this planet. I believe with a little tweaking on the terminals in DC, we can flip the script. Take out every last dead one of them. Fire with fire. All things being equal, it does sound pretty badass."
I squinted and tilted my head. "What the hell does that mean?"
Rick opened the door from the other side, holding his gun in front of the smoke and walkers. "Come on! Fight to the fence!"
We ran side by side, covering each other, surrounded by the fog and smoke. I stabbed the dead and leapt over the bodies. Members from Terminus fought for their lives on the ground, while others had already turned to walkers. The destroyed building gave us a chance to escape, and the smell of fire filled my nose. Mom helped me climb over the fence.
...................................................................
We stood between the trees. Rick and Daryl dug up the weapons they buried in the dirt before they got to the gate.
"Go along the fences. Use the rifles. Take out the rest of 'em. They don't get to live," Rick said.
"Rick, we got out. It's over," Dad said.
I caught my breath. "Dad, we can't just leave them here. They'll come back and find us. You really think that after what they did to you, what they did to us, that they won't?"
Rick grabbed a gun out of the bag. "It's not over till they're all dead."
"The hell it isn't. That place is on fire. Full of walkers," Rosita said.
"I'm not dicking around with this crap. We just made it out," Abraham said.
"The fences are down. They'll run or die," Mom said.
The trees rustled. I looked ahead, opened my mouth in shock, and smiled. Carol walked out.
Daryl ran to hug her.
Rick walked to her. "Did you do that?"
She nodded.
He cried and held her in a hug. "Thank you."
"You have to come with me," she told us.
We walked down the hill at the edge of the woods. Sasha's brother Tyreese stood on the porch of an abandoned house, with Judith in his arms. I beamed and closed my eyes to hold back my tears. Rick froze before running towards her, and Carl and I followed.
...................................................................
Carl put his hand on Judith's head. I hid behind him as I played peekaboo with her, making her cry in between her fussing.
I looked at Carl as he smiled at her. "You didn't think we'd find her. We did. I didn't think we'd make it..."
"We did," he told me.
...................................................................
Days later:
Rick advised us all to walk close together, with our guns aimed. We circled through the woods and heard a voice yell from the distance.
"Help! Help, anybody! Help!"
Rick raised his hand, signalling everyone to stop.
Carl turned to him. "Dad, come on."
The man screamed louder.
Carl motioned his hands at Rick. "Come on! Come on."
We ran towards the voice.
The man in black laid on top of a big rock, and inched back from the walkers who reached for him. One grabbed his foot, and he squirmed, curled himself up into a ball, and cried. Carl shot the walkers near him, Michonne banged another one's head in with her sniper. Rick drove one into the rock, and Carol stabbed one with her knife.
When the coast was clear, the man stepped off the rock, and vomited onto the ground, in front of our feet. "Thank you. I'm Gabriel."
"Do you have any weapons on you?" Rick asked him.
He laughed and laid his hands by his side. "Do I look like I would have any weapons?"
"We don't give two short and curlies what it looks like," Abraham said.
"The word of God is the only protection I need."
I rolled my eyes and laughed.
"Hold your hands above your head." Rick searched him. "How many walkers have you killed?"
Gabriel laughed. "Not any, actually."
"How many people have you killed?"
"None."
"Why?"
"Because the Lord abhors violence."
"What have you done?" Rick asked him. "We've all done something."
"I'm a sinner. I sin almost every day. But those sins, I confess them to God, not strangers."
...................................................................
Gabriel led us to a small white church in the middle of the woods. "St. Sarah's Church. Episcopal."
"Hold up. Can we take a look around first?" Rick asked.
Carl stood outside with Judith, and I held my pistol. I decided to help the group look inside it, to make sure it wasn't a trap, that Gabriel wasn't as bad as the people we just escaped.
A stain-glass window shone through the center of the church. The pews were empty.
Illustrations of the Burning Bush hung on the walls that were colored by children before everything started. The pictures depicted colorful flames and bushes. Some were realistic colors like orange and yellow, but one was rainbow. The text on it read "40 years of wandering".
Wooden and glass crucifixes hung above the doors and on the tables; one in every area you searched. I'd never been in this church before, but I knew it. A picture frame hung on the wall with a verse that said, "And let us not grow weary of doing good. For in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. -Galatians 6:9."
...................................................................
I pat Judith's back, trying to put her to sleep. Carl sat beside me in the pew. Rick decided the church was safe enough, and the group planned on going on a supply run for food.
He knelt beside us. "Listen, I don't trust this guy."
"Why?" Carl asked him. "Everybody can't be bad."
Rick bowed his head and laughed. "Well... I don't trust this guy. And that's why I'm bringing him with me. But he could have friends. So I need you to stay alert and help Tyreese protect Judith, okay?"
"Okay," Carl said.
I nodded.
"Now... I need you to hear what I'm about to say. You are not safe. No matter how many people are around or how clear the area looks, no matter what anyone says, no matter what you think, you are not safe. It only takes one second. One second and it's over. Never let your guard down, ever."
...................................................................
Multiple candles were lit across the church. We sat on the floor, eating what the group brought back for dinner. The only thing I wanted was a bag of stale popcorn, and a small glass of red wine that I was allowed to have, along with the rest of the group.
Mom sat next to me and looked at me critically. "Go easy on that."
Abraham stood to address us. "I'd like to propose a toast. I look around this room... I see survivors. Each and every one of you has earned that title. To the Survivors."
We held up our glasses and cheered. "To the survivors!"
"Is that all you wanna be? Wake up in the morning, fight the undead pricks, forage for food, go to sleep at night with two eyes open, rinse and repeat? 'Cause you can do that. I mean, you got the strength. You got the skill. Thing is, for you people, for what you can do, that's just surrender. Now, we get Eugene to Washington and he will make the dead die and the living will have this world again. And that is not a bad takeaway for a little road trip. Eugene, what's in DC?"
"Infrastructure constructed to withstand pandemics even of this fubar magnitude. That means food, fuel, refuge. Restart," Eugene said.
"However this plays out, however long it takes for the reset button to kick in, you can be safe there. Safer than you've been since this whole thing started. Come with us. Save the world for that little one. Save it for yourselves. Save it for the people out there... who don't got nothing left to do except survive."
Judith sat on Rick's lap, touched his beard, and cooed, causing us all to chuckle and smile at her.
"What was that?" Rick asked her. "I think she knows what I'm about to say. She's in. If she's in, I'm in. We're in."
...................................................................
It was quiet. I laid on one of the pews, but didn't allow myself to fall asleep. Even though we were supposed to be safe there, I couldn't. Mom and Dad stood by the windows, looking out of them. Bob went missing, and Carol and Daryl went missing too. Rick, Sasha, and Tyreese went to look for them. Gabriel stood in the center of the church. He was uneasy since we got here. We intimidated him, and he knew we had the strength to take him out at any second.
The doors opened.
Sasha rushed to Gabriel. "Stop."
I sat myself up.
"What are you doing?" she asked. "This is all connected. You show up, we're being watched, and now three of us are gone."
Gabriel looked at each of us, confused. "I don't have anything to do with this."
Sasha pulled out her knife.
"Don't!" Rosita yelled.
"WHERE ARE OUR PEOPLE?"
Rick stood beside him. "Why'd you bring us here? You working with someone?"
He surrendered. "I'm alone. I'm alone. I was always alone."
"What about the woman in the food bank, Gabriel? What did you do to her? 'You'll burn for this', that was for you. Why? What are you gonna burn for, Gabriel?" Rick launched towards him, with his arm towards his throat. "What? What did you do? WHAT DID YOU DO?"
"I lock the doors at night. I always lock the doors at night. I always lock the doors at night..." He hit his mental break. "They started coming, my congregation. Atlanta was bombed the night before and they were scared. They were looking for a safe place, a place where they felt safe. And it was so early. It was so early. And the doors were still locked. You see... it was my choice. There were so many of them and they were trying to pry the shutters and banging on the sidings, screaming at me. And so the dead came for them. Women... children. Entire families calling my name as they were torn apart, begging me for mercy. Begging me for mercy. Damning me to hell. I buried their bones. I buried it all." He sobbed and held the tag on his uniform with both of his hands. "The Lord sent you here to finally punish me. I'm damned. I was damned before." He fell to the floor, sobbing like a pathetic little shit.
"There's something — there's someone outside laying in the grass!" Dad said, panicked.
...................................................................
Bob laid on the floor in front of us. His leg was gone, and blood poured from its remains. Sasha held his hand.
"I was in the graveyard. Somebody knocked me out. I woke up outside this place. It looked like a school. It was that guy, Gareth. And five other ones. They were eating my leg right in front of me. Like it was nothing. All proud, like they had it all figured out."
"Did they have Carol and Daryl?" Rick asked him, trying to get him to focus.
He groaned in pain. "Gareth said they drove off."
"He's in pain. Do we have anything?" Sasha asked.
"I think there are pill packets in the first aid kit," Rosita said.
"Save 'em." He looked at Sasha and pulled his shirt down to reveal the bite. "It happened at the food bank."
Sasha stared at him in shock, and started to cry. "It's okay."
...................................................................
The group split in half. We expected the group from Terminus to return, knowing they were still out there. Mom, Dad, and most of the others left into the woods, while the rest of us stayed back at the church. Carl and I got into formation with our guns. Bob rested on the couch in the other room, as he prepared to die from his sickness. Gabriel sat in the corner, grabbing his knees and praying the rosary. I closed my eyes and reminded myself to take deep breaths. Judith laid in her basket, in front of Carl and I.
The door opened.
"Well, I guess you know we're here. And we know you're here. And we're armed. So there's really no point in hiding anymore."
They walked closer, as silently as they could, with their guns out. I felt my ears pulse.
"We've been watching you. We know who's here. There's Bob, unless you've put him out of his misery already. And Eugene, Rosita. Martin's good friend Tyreese. Carl. Mallory. Judith. Rick and the rest walked out with a lot of your guns. Listen, we don't know where you all are, but this isn't a big place. So let's just stop this now before things get more painful than they need to be. Look, you're behind one of these two doors and we have more than enough firepower to take down both. Can't imagine that's what you all want." A gun cocked. "How about the priest? Father, you help us wrap this up, we'll let you walk away from this. You can take the baby with you. What do you say?"
I ground my teeth and scowled.
"It's your last chance right now to tell us you're coming out."
A moment of silence passed, of us not cooperating with them.
"We'll light the hinges."
We heard gunshots. The mushy sound of hit brains. Bodies collapsing to the floor.
"Put your guns on the floor," Rick said.
"Rick, we'll fire right into that office. So you lower your gun —"
Another gunshot caused Gareth to scream in pain.
"Put your guns on the floor and kneel."
"Do what he says," Gareth whimpered. "No point in begging, right? Still, you could've killed us when you came in. There had to be a reason for that."
"We didn't want to waste the bullets," Rick said.
"We used to help people. We saved people. Things changed. They came in and —" Gareth cried in pain. "After that... I know that you've been out there, but I can see it. You don't know what it is to be hungry. You don't have to do this. We can walk away. And we will never cross paths again. I promise you."
"But you'd cross someone's path. You'd do this to anyone, right? Besides, I already made you a promise."
Gareth screamed. Rick clashed his machete against his head. A multitude of hitting, chopping, and blood splattering followed.
I walked out of the room. The group stood in shock, staring at what we had to do.
Blood covered Rick's face. "It could've been us."
Gabriel examined the scene. "This is the Lord's house."
"No. It's just four walls and a roof," Mom said.
...................................................................
We said our goodbyes to Bob. Sasha waited in the room with him, until he passed away. Abraham and his group planned on leaving for DC in the morning. Tara and my parents decided to go with him, but I wasn't allowed to.
I sat in one of the pews and warmed my hands by rolling them against my black leggings. "I don't understand why I can't go with you. We just found each other again."
"I need to go help them," Mom said. "That's my job. And your job is to stay here and help guard this place with Michonne and Carl."
"You really think they're gonna save the world?"
It took her a minute to respond. "I hope so. We have to try."
"I could be a help out there. I can fight. You know that."
"I do. I also know you could be of help here."
"Make me a deal, then."
"What?"
"If you go, save the world or whatever, we get to go to my old house when we get back."
She sighed and tilted her head. "Honey, we don't know what we'd find there."
"That's right. Phoebe and my first dad could be there. I have to know."
...................................................................
The next morning:
Abraham's group loaded their things onto the bus. Mom and Dad hugged me, and I could tell they were about to cry.
"We'll be back," Dad said. "Help defend this place. You have just as much of a responsibility as we do."
I nodded.
Michonne placed her hand on my back. "We'll be fine. Go and do your thing. Save the world."
We stood on the steps while the bus prepared to drive away. My parents looked out the window. They were sad, but hopeful.