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CHAPTER THREE
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

❛ 𝐄𝐈𝐘𝐄 𝐎𝐍 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄,
𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒅 ❜
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ. | ❝𝒀'𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒖𝒑?❞ | ₊ﾟ.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

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ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛʜʀᴇᴇ
𝓉ℯ𝓃𝓈𝒾ℴ𝓃

THE PLAN WAS SIMPLE. All we had to do was get the bag of guns that were dropped in the middle of the street with Glenn in the lead.

"Where do you want me?" I asked, leaning over the four of them to peer at the makeshift map. All eyes glanced up at me, but no one said anything. I raised my eyebrows in annoyance. "Am I talking to four brick walls?"

Rick cleared his throat and stood from his position next to Glenn, tugging gently at my wrist to pull me away from the others. He put a hand on his hip and looked away for a second, then looked down to his boots. My eyes widened in familiarity and I shook my head. "You can't be serious."

"It's the only way to make sure you don't get hurt." he said quietly.

"Rick, I came because I wanted to help," I argued, challenging his eyes. "Besides, you can't possibly think leaving me here alone is any better?"

With a glance to the others, Rick sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Lori would never forgive me if something happened to you," he finally said after a moment. His eyes finally met mine. "I wouldn't forgive myself."

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms defensively over my chest. "So I'm just supposed to wait here and do what exactly?"

"Keep yourself hidden, stay low, away from the windows." he said with a nod of his head. I didn't say anything else, and he gave me that look. "Can you do that?"

No. "Yes."

He nodded once with a hand placed on my shoulder, and walked back over to the others. I chewed on the inside of my lip as I watched the rest of them finalize their plan.

"Hey, kid, what'd you do before all this?" Daryl asked Glenn.

"Delivered pizzas," Glenn answered, looking at him with innocent eyes. "Why?"

Ah. It all made sense now.

* ੈ✩‧₊˚

AS soon as Rick and the others exited the building, I was flying back up the stairs to the roof. There was no way I was going to sit back and hope for the best; especially when it came to my family.

As high up as I was, I couldn't see everything. I could make out Glenn sprinting down the street, but that was about it. It wasn't long before I could hear shouts though.

My heart was thudding in my chest so hard as I strained to listen to who it was coming from, and what they were saying.

"Daryl! Daryl!" It was Glenn.

I stared down the building, eyes frantically searching for any signs of them, and began to panic when I didn't see anyone.

It wasn't until a few minutes later that they all rounded a corner with a kid who wasn't Glenn.

I quickly ran back to the door to the inside, racing down the steps. I made it to the bottom just as Rick and the others plowed through the double doors.

"What happened? Where's Glenn?" I asked in a rush as I met up with Rick in the middle.

"We ran into a little bit of trouble." Rick muttered.

"Oh, God," I breathed, my hand resting on my chest. "Is he dead?"

"Not yet. This sum'bitch and his homies took 'im." Daryl spat. "Probably took Merle too."

"What kind of a hick name is Merle? I wouldn't name my dog Merle." the guest of honor did not seem to put together that our friendly-neighborhood-redneck was not actually friendly, and had a bit of a temper.

Before Daryl could reach him, Rick held him back from kicking the young boy. Daryl then opted to showing him Merle's severed limb, claiming it was his own doing, and the kid was next.

"We just want our friend back. You can help us get him back. Just tell us where we gotta go." Rick pleaded with him.

After what felt like forever, the boy finally nodded his head slightly, his body shaking in fear.

* ੈ✩‧₊˚

THE group came and went another time, after much argument about giving up guns for Glenn's life. They had decided to go in, guns blazing, while I was left with a gun and a knife, expected to wait around for them to come back.

Not again.

As soon as the men were out the door, I was following their trail as close as I possibly could without being seen. They were going to get my help whether they liked it or not.

As the occasional walker came up to my side, I was able to put it down without drawing any attention to myself. 

When the group stopped outside a large building, I made my way around to the back, intending to find an opening and slip inside.

It was a lot easier than I thought, as one of the windows on the lower level had a small crack in it. Using this to my advantage, I quickly took my sweater off and wrapped it around my fingers, lifting up on the remaining glass shards that were too big to pass. Once there was enough out of the way, I set the shards down on the ground and quietly climbed inside, my gun raised in front of me.

I walked down an ill-lit corridor, my legs carrying me towards the sound of voices. I rounded a corner and slowly approached the well-lit space with my gun extended past me. It wasn't until I heard a familiar voice that my heart sped up, and I flinched in surprise.

I stuck my head out from one of the corners, my back still pressed against the wall. My eyes met a familiar set of brown ones, and then a few other duller ones.

I slowly moved from my position at the wall and made my way out into what looked to be a rec-room. I looked around carefully, making sure I didn't see any immediate threat, but was only further met with old people and their smiles.

"Eiylan, what are you doing here?" Glenn asked, his eyebrows furrowed together.

I slowly tucked the gun back into the waistband of my jeans, still looking around in confusion.

"Guillermo made it seem like he had you tied up by the balls in a basement." I said in a low voice. "I was coming to try and sneak you out, but from the looks of it, doesn't seem like anyone would notice."

"Does Rick know you're here?" he asked.

"No, he doesn't." I replied quickly. Why did everyone act like Rick was my father? I could do whatever the hell I wanted to do, when I wanted to.

"He does now." Well, shit.

I whipped around, pulling my gun from behind me and pointing straight for the man I assumed was Guillermo. Rick stood next to him, his eyes swimming with annoyance as he stared at me.

"Well. This is slightly embarrassing." I said to no one in particular, an awkward smile playing on my lips. "Y'all the ones who called for back up?" I shrugged my shoulders a bit in attempt to ease the blow of tension that radiated from Rick.

"Mija! You put that away!" an older woman called to me, approaching my left side. She rested a hand on my arm and I looked to her apologetically.

"Eiye, put the gun down." Rick let out an irritated breath, watching me lower my gun, once again.

Glenn offered me a thankful nod as he stood up, making his way back over to Rick.

Rick handed Guillermo a few guns, and we were off.

"The hell you'd go and do that for? Gave up a few guns fer a couple ol' farts that're just gonna die anyway." Daryl fussed. Rick paid him no mind, however.

"What the hell were you thinking?" he asked me, his cop voice scolding.

"I was thinking I needed to help," I said, not looking up at him. "And I did. Well.. would have." I muttered the last part.

"And you could have gotten yourself killed."

"You do realize I made it in there on my own, right? And that I would have been able to get Glenn out on my own, too?" I asked, finally staring up at him. "Then maybe you wouldn't have had to give any of your guns away, willing or not." Rick huffed at me, and I heard Daryl snicker. "You gotta stop treating me like I'm a child. I'm Lori's little sister, not a baby."

Our conversation halted as we came up to our original parking spot of the van we came in, seeing it was gone.

"It was just right here. Who would've taken it?" Glenn asked to no one in particular.

"Merle." Rick deadpanned.

I ran a hand over my face as I looked around, my head starting to ache.

"Looks like we're on foot."

* ੈ✩‧₊˚

THE ache in my muscles as we ran was a comforting feeling to focus on as the tension continued to radiate between Rick and I.

When we were kids, it was always like this. Rick told me to do something, I didn't do it, and we fought. It was never usually life threatening then how it is now, though.

Our relationship had come to light as the Grimes family moved in next door to Lori and I when I was about ten years old. Rick and I had the most in common (even with him being two years older than me), but somehow, he only ever had eyes for Lori. I was okay with that fact. Of course, when you become teenagers your time seems to be more valuable- you don't have time to hang out with old friends and play games like you used to. You grow up. Which is exactly what happened with Rick and Lori when they turned sixteen, leaving fourteen year-old me behind in the dust.

Once we got into adulthood though, it got better. Rick and I quickly fell back into the swing of how things used to be: laughing, joking around, the incessant teasing; It seemed my sister and I became closer, too. Lori had Carl, and I was over for dinner almost every night to see my family. It was nice to be apart of something, a change from always being alone.

Soon enough, Carl got older, Lori and Rick's marriage lacked emotion- it was all a cluster of things that tumbled down hill with the rest of the world. Turns out though, the universe wanted to give my sister and my best friend one more chance at happiness, and I was glad.

"What was that?" Glenn spoke up, breaking the silence between all of us. We all stopped running, listening for the sound Glenn had heard. I felt my hands become clammy as I strained to hear anything, reaching for my gun in my waistband. Suddenly, as if someone had turned up the volume of our camp, we could hear the screams and cries of the people occupying the space. My heart was in my throat as I took off again towards the camp, my blood pumping in my ears as I pushed myself to go faster.

"Lori! Carl!" I was yelling through the crowd, taking shots at any walker that came too close to me or anyone else. As my gun clicked, signaling there was no more ammo, I was forced to use my hunting knife. As I reached for the knife in my boot, I fell to the ground with a heavy weight on my chest.

I screamed as I came face to face with a walker on me, its teeth clamping towards me. I used my arm to push up on it as hard as I could, trying to use my other hand to grab the knife that had been knocked out of my hand. At the same time I plunged it into the walker's forehead, a bolt flew into the base of its skull. The walker slumped forward, its face landing on my chest. I bent my knee, trying to kick it off of me, struggling to breathe with the weight of it lying on my chest. Suddenly, it was no longer hard to breathe and I gasped, spurts of coughs escaping my throat as I quickly stood up, my eyes meeting those electric blue ones.

"Ya good?" Daryl asked me, ripping the bolt out of the back of the dead head he had rolled off of me.

I coughed once more and nodded. "I guess I owe you one. Thanks."

He nodded once at me. I was looking around the camp trying to spot Lori and Carl, but couldn't see them. As I turned back to face Daryl, I yelled, "Duck!"

Daryl immediately hit the ground and I threw the smaller knife that clung to my leg behind him, into a walker's skull. Daryl stood up and looked back down at the dead body.

"Guess we're even." he called, jogging towards the RV.

"Eiylan!"

I quickly turned around to face Lori, who was holding my hysterical nephew by her side. I ran to them, wrapping my arms around my sister.

"Are you okay? Did anything touch you?" I asked frantically.

"We're fine," she breathed. "They just came out of nowhere."

I bent down to embrace Carl, his small arms wrapping around me as he buried his face into the crook of my neck.

"You aren't allowed to leave again," he cried softly.

"I'm sorry, buddy. I won't." I said, squeezing him tighter.

"Love you." he whispered.

"Until the cows come home." I smiled. Carl released me with a small laugh, wiping under his eyes.

collage made by edmundhasmyheart ♡︎

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AUTHORS                                    NOTE.

The part where the guys take one of the other men hostage and he says "I wouldn't name my dog Merle!" and Daryl leans over Rick, trying to kick him literally CRACKS ME UPPPPP it is so funny. Hope you guys are enjoying the story, and thank you to everyone who is reading!!

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