"Hahhh, finally we won't be holed inside there." Carol stretched outside in the yard, smiling happily despite her sore shoulders.
Today was a busy one spent all on working and moving around.
She had to change the covers and wash them, help with peeling the old paint off the walls, move things to the storage room, help with counting, make lunch, join gun-firing exercises and take care of her daughter.
And now after a whole day of work, they were finally out, readying grills and all for a barbecue dinner. A welcome gathering for the new members and Sasuke's return.
Only Billy was missing, and from what they got from Sasuke, Billy himself was in good shape, healthy, and fed. So they didn't feel that bad; he will get his too.
The walls around were only half done, but that was a beautiful start; it will take only one more day of focused work to finish with circling this whole section in the 4-meter wall.
The most shocked by that, however, was Adam. One day...Sasuke did work that needed a whole team and at least two days in just 12 hours of continuous work.
"Feels amazing. How long had it been since we did this?" Amy leaned on Andrea's shoulder, seeing the others joining around the big table set outside. The weather was cold; it stopped raining by noon, but this night breeze was still cold.
Fortunately they got warm and clean new clothes. So no one was really uncomfortable.
The place smelled like wet sand and iron, but no one really cared at this point; it had been 3 long nights since they were outside the cellblock.
"Where is he?"
"Patrols, with Daryl," Katniss answered Jenny.
"They need to relax a little; it's safe here," Maria said and was surprised to hear the little boy with Jenny replying to her.
"Rest but never totally relax; tragedies tend to strike when no one is expecting them." He munched on his bread, tired from helping others around.
"That's a good way to take it, kid; your father taught you right." Jenny's lips twitched at that; Morgan taught Duan to aim at the head; survival lessons were all from Sasuke.
"Papa Sasuke," Ciri snickered at Duan, who told him to say her supposed part to shine...
...
While everyone in the prison was having a good time after a fruitful day, relaxing with their loved ones, the night on the farm was totally the opposite.
In the end, what Duan said had struck right in Rick's group case.
Tragedy came knocking when no one expected it.
It all started yesterday morning with Carl, who, feeling bored...stole Glenn's revolver and decided to wander to the forest near the farmhouse and see if he can find something interesting to do.
He walked until he came to the swamps.
And there, a walker had its feet trapped in the swamps, unable to move. Carl started throwing pebbles at it; it became fun, and he decided on taking a closer look that didn't end well and nearly had him killed. One of the walker's stuck feet got freed, and the walker nearly fell upon Carl, who fumbled, dropping the revolver, and ran back to the farm, leaving the walker on the ground, one foot still stuck and trying to reach for the running boy.
That same night, that same walker somehow freed itself and had wandered close to the farmhouse, and unfortunately, one of their group fell victim to him.
A man named Paul.
Carl eventually confessed to Shane about his actions that led to that, but Shane told him that it wasn't his fault, and it was kept under wraps.
The next day wasn't any better, though all of them thought it was, as Hershel finally allowed Rick and some of his close people to live in their house, fearing for Lori, who was pregnant, and wanting to offer a better place for them.
They even started planning seriously to make the place more secure; they patrolled the area, killed walkers, and Rick assigned guard duties to some people, had Shane and T-dog start to build lookouts on the windmill and the barn, and finally set plans to start on progressing into securing the farm more.
He even went with Glenn to free Randall in a faraway place, the prisoner whose pierced leg had healed enough for him to walk.
But in the end, he and Glenn couldn't find it in them to abandon Randall and brought him back.
His family was safe anyway in the farmhouse, and Randall can even be assigned to do some jobs, or so thought Rick...
Yet again, that thought disappeared when they were on the way back; a horde, unlike anything they had seen before, was advancing toward the farmhouse, some walkers already too close to the tents outside the house.
Glenn punched the horn in an attempt to alert everyone as he sped forward, and people at the house finally noticed the horde closing in on them.
But some unfortunate people emerged from their tents only to be welcomed with hungry walkers, jaws biting at whatever alive thing was in front.
Screams echoed. Shane, who was checking the barn, became alerted by the horn and gunshots and ran outside just to see walkers coming for him. With no way forward, he closed the doors, trying to see a way out from upstairs.
Only one thought echoed in his head: Lori and Carl... Eventually, he shouted for Jimmy, who was driving the RV, to come close so he could jump on it, lighting a fire in the barn behind him, and hearing Jimmy's painful screams as walkers somehow found their way inside the RV, which had its door unlocked.
Seeing walkers distracted by Jimmy, Shane jumped down and ran toward the farmhouse; he saw Hershel, Lori holding Carl's hand, Jacqui, Otis holding his wife's hand, Maggie and Beth, and three others all retreating.
But one walker was sneaking close to Lori, who didn't notice him; he shot at one, another, and his revolver clicked, signaling its last bullet. Rick was running toward them from the other side, but neither would reach in time to deal with the walker nearing Lori.
With no other option, Shane, who was still some feet away, shoved a man toward the walker, causing him to drop behind Carl, and the walker got distracted by its flesh, as did the nearby walkers.
Finally giving their group a chance to retreat to the cars.
T-Dog's pickup screeched to a halt, and he opened the door, letting Maggie and her sister in. Otis helped his wife get in the back, while he killed a walker and followed her up.
Rick took the SUV with Hershel, his wife and son, and another man and woman.
While Shane went to the car Glenn was driving with a girl, the old man, and his wife. Randall was still blindfolded and bound in the trunk, unaware of the chaos outside and his unclear fate.
They didn't look back; walkers were coming from everywhere in great numbers, leaving no room for overthinking. Everyone just hit the gas and drove away from the farm.
But every single one of them had the same thing, the same regret...
If only Sasuke, Daryl, and others were here...they could've worked together and prevented this. Like the previous times.
Walkers had ripped through half of them already, the remaining having an unknown fate.
As in the end, they had abandoned the only one who was working on changing their fate, and with him gone, so came the butterfly effect.
"How did this happen? Why suddenly? Didn't we discuss putting lookouts?" Glenn gritted his teeth, ramming through a walker with fury.
"That plan was supposed to be put to work tomorrow. How could we know that shit would hit the fan this fucking quick?" Shane spat back, his words filled with frustration. He was still coming to terms with the fact that he had just killed a man, indirectly, but the result was still the same.
A man died because of him.
'But Lori and Carl, they would've been the ones to go down if I didn't do it. I saved three lives in exchange for one.' He breathed hard; there were still walkers in the road ahead.
"Where are we even going to go?" Glenn's palms were sweating, thankfully...his girlfriend was there...alive with him in the car. He was there in time to save her; her brother, on the other hand, went down unfortunately as he ran away, abandoning her just to be caught first.
"The highway—it's the only point close to us that we all are familiar with. Rick will surely go there to regroup. Drive to there." Shane told him, gathering himself up, this wasn't time for that; he still isn't sure about what happened to Lori and Carl and others and his unborn child in Lori's womb.
He refused to believe it was Rick's, no matter how much Lori said otherwise. She was his, and that child would be too.
...
"If only he were here, just why the fuck did it have to happen now!!! When everything was finally going on the right track, why?!" T-dog slammed the wheel, angry.
"He wouldn't change anything, not alone. Did you see how many there were?!" Maggie, who was hugging her crying sister, lashed out; just hearing the talk about Sasuke was making her more angry.
"He would; actually, none of this would've happened if he was here. He always was prepared, and even when he wasn't, he always dealt with them: Billy, Daryl, Katniss, and even Dale...if they were here...none of this would've happened. In the end, your father is the cause of this. His group is safe in the prison; none of them have died. yet look at ours, Paul last night, and now Diana, Liza, Kilian...they all..." Tears went down his cheek remembering the screams of those people.
People he was eating with just some hours ago. Now...not anymore.
It was dawn when the cars pulled to the highway where Sophia once disappeared from.
The hoods were bloodied, some having rotten skin clinging to parts, showing how the way out wasn't easy at all.
The sun was rising, but it brought no hope or warmth this time, only despair and the mourning of loss and death.
Rick got out to see who... survived.
And he gritted his teeth seeing the number of their people.
Rick, Lori, Carl, Hershel, a man named Mike, and a lady named Gloria.
T-dog, Maggie, Beth, Patricia, Otis, and Jacqui.
Glenn, Shane, a girl named Vivian, and an old man named Gale and his wife.
17, from the 28, only 17 made it...18 if you count the bound prisoner, Randall, that needed no longer to be, as they had no place to keep secret now.
They exchanged hugs, some relieved that at least their loved ones had made it.
Others are grieving, only this time...there is no one to point fingers at.
There is no ^why didn't you do something^ to Sasuke. Or ^why are you always siding with your people^ to Billy and Morgan?
Because this time...it was obvious this was the consequence of their own choices.
True, they acted to prevent this possibility, but that action simply came too late.
"What to do now?"
"Had anyone contacted Sasuke?" Rick asked.
"CB was on the RV... I don't remember the channel," T-dog said. The CB given by Sasuke was adjusted on the channel, and he didn't care about recalling it.
"Jimmy, where's Jimmy?"
"He didn't make it," Shane answered Otis, who hugged his wife hearing that.
"We need to contact Sasuke," Glenn told Rick just to hear Mike's rebuttal to that suggestion.
"What is he going to do anyway?"
"He has a place, secured from what I heard; we can head there."
"You go, we won't." Hershel shook his head, hugging Maggie and Beth, who was crying.
"Hershel!! This isn't the time for this."
"You think he will just let me and my family in, after what happened between our people?"
Rick felt his head throb hearing that from Hershel. Are they still going over this? He took a deep breath before explaining it to them.
"He will; we are his people too, Daryl, Morgan, and Billy...they won't turn their back on us."
"I still won't go; America's land is big, we will find another place or another farm."
And thus, a long debate broke out, and after what felt like an eternity, they all came to a decision: they will try to find a place, another one, theirs...just like Sasuke and others did.
'If a damn pretty Asian kid can do it, so can we.' Mike nodded, satisfied with the decision.
Rick, too, was leaning toward that reasoning of Hershel; Lori made sure of that. If all failed, they would go to the prison and ask help from Sasuke.
None are aware of how much worse their decisions are becoming. And the consequences...
As in the end, deep down...most here just couldn't bear the thought of losing that pleasure that came from being a leading figure to someone else, especially to a foreign young boy half their age.
Even if it is all crumbling, like they said: being the head of a chicken is way better than a dragon's tail.
Unaware that in the end, it is still a chicken that would be preyed upon at every possible turn.
=====
I won't say anything about this; I myself am not even sure if that is how they would react after what happened. {Searching for a new place rather than going for Sasuke}
to those who watched the series (I'm rewatching it).
You will see how, with more time, the thrill that came from leading others was deep-rooted in Rick and others, even Glenn at some point in the prison.
Every time they went to a new community, they somehow tried hard to regain that authority; sometimes it was the right call, sometimes not.
Which isn't bad actually, but if that thrill made you unable to choose the right thing for your people, then it is. {the whole undecisiveness with the governor}
And if you saw ^Fear the Walking Dead,^ Madison and her group?
Man...they were worse than anything I saw with Rick's group.
I regretted even watching that; I was expecting Morgan, yet that came a whole 4 seasons later that were pure torture. And at that point I dropped it.
They are a damn plague that destroyed every place they went to, just because every single time, they tried to dethrone the leading figures at those shelters.
Sorry about ranting here lol, I just felt like it. Maybe I'm not the only one who felt like that seeing that show.
Hope the chapter was good; comment and share your ideas. Thanks for the amazing support, and like I said, if chapters aren't dropped at their usual time, expect a bulk release whenever I'm back.
Stay safe.