CHAPTER TWENTY NINE » LOST
"They didn't make it."

♔

My eyes opened lazily to be met with Glenn's peacefully sleeping face. His eyelids were closed against the dimly lit dawn, all the muscles in his face relaxed. His chest was rising and falling with short breaths as I gazed at him, smiling to myself.

"Glenn! Blaire!"

Jolting upright, my eyes fluttered around wildly as Glenn began muttering sleepy words of confusion under his breath.

"Glenn! Blaire!"

I groaned, rubbing the palms of my hands over my eyes. I looked up again, watching Glenn putting one leg through his pants and then the other, heading to the side of the watch tower.

"Hey!" I heard him call out awkwardly. "What's up guys?!" 

"You comin'?" Daryl yelled, making me cringe.

"What?" Glenn shouted back, beginning to buckle his belt.

"You comin'?" Daryl repeated. "Come on, we could use a hand!"

"Yeah, we'll be right down!"

I sighed as Glenn turned back around to face me, smiling softly. "Do we have to go," I whined, pulling the sheets up closer over my body. "It's comfy here."

Glenn walked over, a small chuckle escaping between his lips. "B, come on."

I looked up at his chocolate coloured eyes, giving in with a groan. "Fine. But do you know where my shirt is?"

~

"You want them living in a cell next to you?" Rick asked, focusing his question on T-Dog. The prisoners, Axel and Oscar had confronted the others about joining the group just before Glenn and I arrived. "They'll just be waiting for a chance to grab our weapons, you want to go back to sleeping with one eye open?"

"I never stopped," he replied, folding his arms. "Bring them into the fold. If we send them off packing, we might as well execute them ourselves."

"I don't know," Glenn started. "Axel seems a little unstable."

"After all we've been through?" Carol questioned. "We fought so hard for all this, what if they decide to take it?"

"It's just been us for so long..." Maggie trailed off. "They're strangers. I don't- it feels weird all of a sudden to have these other people around."

"You brought us in," T-Dog countered, also turning to Olivia who he'd become close friends with recently, but seemed a bit uncomfortable to be stood next to considering what we both found out yesterday. "We all took Olivia in."

"Yeah," she spoke up. "I came to you guys on my own. I could have been anybody." Her eyes shifted to mine for a moment but I looked away quickly, biting my tongue.

"Yeah, but you turned up injured," Maggie said, then looking at Rick. "And you turned up with a shot boy in your arms, didn't give us a choice."

"They can't even kill walkers," Glenn pointed out.

"They're convicts, bottom line," Carol added.

"Those two might actually have less blood on their hands than we do," T-Dog stated, giving me something to think more about. I wasn't all for bringing those people in, agreeing with Carol's statement about them being criminals. I mean, I worked to bring those kinds of people in, it was against everything I'd stood for. But this was the new world now, things were different. It was a tough call.

"I get guys like this," Daryl spoke up. "Hell, I grew up with them. They're degenerates, but they ain't psychos. I could have been with them just as easy as I'm out here with you guys."

"So you with me?" T-Dog asked almost hopefully.

"Hell no! Let 'em take their chances out on the road, just like we did!"

"What I'm saying-"

"When I was a rookie," Rick interrupted. "I arrested this kid. Nineteen years old, wanted for stabbing his girlfriend. The kid blubbered like a baby during the interrogation, during the trial, suckered the jury. He was acquitted due to insufficient evidence, and two weeks later shot another girl. We've been through too much. Our deal with them stands."

I made eye contact with him, nodding in approval with his decision.

"Back to the vehicles," Rick instructed. "Move the cars to the upper yard. Point them facing out. They'll be out of the way but ready to go if we ever need to bail." He turned to T-Dog. "We'll give the prisoners a week's worth of supplies for the road."

"Might not last a week," he muttered in reply, almost bitterly.

"Their choice."

"Did they really have one?"

I shared a wary look with Daryl and quickly began walking away from the conversation. He walked in sync with me, not saying anything for a few moments. "So," he started, and even without looking I could see the smirk on his face. "Have fun on watch?"

I glanced up at him, hearing him chuckle. "It was great," I replied, narrowing my eyes into a glare. "Thanks."

Glenn, to make things even more embarrassing, caught up with the two of us, lacing his fingers with mine. "Did I interrupt something?" He then asked, noticing the awkward tension in the air. Unable to hold back the laughter anymore, Daryl and I both simultaneously let our chuckles as Glenn watched us with a frown. "Guys, seriously?"

Glenn's confusion only made Daryl and I laugh even harder, whilst he continued to watch us with questioning eyes. I turned back to look at him, squeezing his hand. "Nothing babe," I said with a giggle as we all seemed to slow, looking in the distance.

Hershel appeared to be walking on crutches in the courtyard and I felt a wide smile brighten up on my face. Even after what had happened, he still managed to keep going and with a positive attitude too. I admired the man.

The happy moment ended when Carl's voice tore through the air, making my heart soar in panic. "Walkers!"

I whipped my head around, seeing walkers appearing from one of the open sections of the prison. They were heading straight towards the courtyard, where Hershel, Lori, Carl and Beth were stood. My heart plummeted. "Shit!"

I took off running as bullets flew around the courtyard, Daryl and Glenn behind me. I completely forgot about the open fence, turning around to yell at someone to close it when I noticed Glenn already had it covered.

Daryl's hand pressed against my back all of a sudden, keeping me running at a fast pace beside him until we'd almost reached the main gates. Rick was stood at the front shouting instructions into the courtyard, and I realised that Glenn had the keys.

"Glenn, keys!" I shouted behind me, holding my hand out as he threw them in my direction. I caught them in one hand, chucking them to Daryl who was now a little ahead of me, who then threw them to Rick. I continued running, passing the prisoners at the first gate, who were stood unsure on what to do. Rick was fumbling with the keys at the next gate, causing panic to rise even further up in me until he eventually got the right one. Once the chain was off, we all sprinted through to the prison, not even stopping when we had to shoot through walkers to get inside.

Hershel and Beth were stood behind a closed door with panicked expressions.

"What happened?" I yelled, raising my voice above the noise.

"The gate was open!" Beth rushed out.

"Where's Lori, Carl, everyone else?" Rick questioned as I stabbed a walker to my left.

"Maggie led Lori and Carl into C block," Hershel replied, as I jammed my knife into another walker's skull.

"And T was bit," Beth added, causing my heart to fall. I snapped my eyes up to look at her, swallowing thickly as I digested the news.

"Anyone else?"

"I couldn't tell."

"Stay put," Rick ordered, as Glenn made his way over from the gate.

"Those chains didn't break on their own," my boyfriend stated. "Someone took and ax or cutters to 'em."

My eyes wandered towards Axel and Oscar who stepped into the courtyard looking a little stunned.

My jaw clenched. "You think they did it?" Glenn asked, his eyes meeting mine.

"Who else?" Rick said, anger burning in his voice. And as if things couldn't get any worse, sirens suddenly blared obnoxiously from the prison.

"Fuck sake!" I shouted, glancing around me, knowing this was going to get us into huge walker trouble. I wanted to scream out in frustration.

"You gotta be kiddin' me!" Daryl yelled out as he began to pace around.

Rick aimed up at some speakers on the walls, shooting at them. I pinpointed some more, doing the exact same, as did Glenn. Yet, even once all the speakers had been broken, the noise still continued.

Angrily, Rick ran at Axel and Oscar, his gun pointed at them. "How the hell can this be happening?!"

"It has to be the backup generators," Oscar said, his hands held up in defence.

"Well how do you turn those off?"

"There's three that's connected to a diesel tank, okay? Each one controls a certain part of the prison," he explained. "The hatch shut them all off when the prison was overrun."

"Can someone open up the main gates electronically, with full power?" Rick asked.

"Well, I only went in there a few days, I-I guess it might be possible."

"Come with us."

We all headed through to the cells, shooting any of the remaining walkers, Rick getting the last one.

"We just took down five of 'em in here," Daryl said.

"There were four in here, but no sign of Lori or anyone," Rick replied, as I continued glancing around the cells.

"They must have been pushed back into the prison," Glenn suggested.

"Somebody is playing games!" Rick shouted, his patience noticeably  wearing thin, much like mine. "We'll split up and look for the others. Whoever gets to the generators first, shut 'em down!"

Glenn had already headed one way, Axel following. Daryl nodded me over the opposite way with himself, Rick and Oscar. Glancing back once more, not particularly wanting to part with Glenn but knowing I needed to, I headed into the hallway. The sirens still rang through the air, along with moans from the walkers following behind us.

We stopped outside a door and I internally hoped it was the right one, not wanting to be stuck in the dark corridors anymore. "Daryl, door!" Rick commanded as we burst through into the room. Daryl slammed his body against it, stopping any walkers from entering. Oscar did the same, Rick and I rushing through the room to look for the generators.

Rick seemed to find them, and I ran over, not knowing where the hell to start. "How do you shut these down!" Rick called out to Oscar, who looked reluctant to leave Daryl to handle the door alone.

"Oscar, switch!" I instructed, rushing over and taking his place at the door, pushing it with all the strength I had. The door shook from all the bodies piling against it and I winced, not sure how long I could hold it.

Shouts could be heard from back at the generators and I shared a look with Daryl, who's eyes flickered down to his crossbow on the floor and then to the gun in my belt loop. Catching on to his thoughts I gritted my teeth, nodding. "On three," I instructed, my hand already reaching for my weapon. "One, two, three!"

The two of us pulled away from the door, getting as far back as possible. As Daryl assembled his crossbow, I shot the first two of the dead that stumbled through, Daryl hitting a couple more before shutting the door again. Sharing a nod, we began to head over to where Rick and Oscar were, a sudden gunshot making us both speed up.

One of the other prisoners was lay on the floor, blood pooling around him. Oscar was handing a gun back to Rick, who took it and headed over to generators, finally shutting them down and leaving us in an empty silence.

"Lets go."

~

I led the way, a flashlight in one hand and my gun raised in the other. I heard a loud moan from a walker and Rick put his arm out, stopping me from going any further. The four of us pressed our backs against the wall before Rick and Daryl rushed forwards, shooting down two walkers that were chewing on something. I stopped beside them, my eyes glancing down at the mutilated corpse in front of us.

"T," I breathed out, my hand going to my mouth in shock. Tears burned in my eyes, Beth's words replaying in my head. I'd been so caught up in everything that I'd completely forgotten we'd lost someone so special.

I felt Rick place his hand comfortingly on my shoulder and I leaned in to him, letting silent tears fall down my cheeks. T-Dog deserved so much more than this.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Daryl holding a scarf in his hands. Turning my head towards it, I noticed it was Carol's. Daryl tossed it to the floor again, his suffering eyes meeting mine.

Rick had tore his eyes away from the sight of T-Dog and nodded towards the door. I felt Daryl's presence close to mine and looked up at him as Rick and Oscar went ahead. He shifted his gaze and I reached for his hand, squeezing it tight and not bothering to let go as we headed back outside. Neither of us needed to say anything at all, we just needed comfort. We'd lost people we were close to and it hurt like hell.

The sunlight was practically blinding and I squinted, raising my other hand to my forehead to shade the sun.

"Hershel!" Rick called out, as my eyes locked with someone else's.

"Glenn," I breathed out, my hand slipping from Daryl's as he headed over, wrapping his arms around me. I buried my head into his chest before looking up to meet his eyes.

"You good?" He asked, his fingers lifting up my chin slightly. I shook my head, unable to say any more. Glenn nodded, bringing me into another hug.

"You didn't find 'em?" Hershel asked and I turned to look back at Rick. Glenn wrapped his arm around my waist, holding me tightly.

"We thought maybe they came back out here," he said.

"What about T? Carol?"

My mind cast back to the horrific sight of T-Dog's mangled body and only Carol's scarf.

"They didn't make it," Daryl replied, and my eyes flickered down to the floor.

"That doesn't mean the others didn't," Rick said. "We're going back. Blaire, Daryl and Glenn, you come with me-"

A baby's cry suddenly rang throughout the air and I froze, watching as Maggie, a baby in her arms, Olivia and Carl stepped outside. The air felt like it had gone from my lungs as I watched Rick walk over to them. There was no Lori.

"Where- where is she? Where is she?"

Maggie seemed to be unable to form any words, tears streaming down her face. A sob caught in my throat as I watched Rick walk past her and towards Carl. The two Grimes' shared a look for a moment, until Rick completely broke down in tears. He fell to his knees, strangled cries audible as he lay on the ground, a broken man.

Glenn's arms wrapped tighter around me as I choked on tears, grasping on to his shirt material, unable to take so much loss. 

Lori was gone.

❃

Words: 2602
Published: 12th December 2016

Rip.

How about that mid season finale then? Ngl I cried at the end when they were all finally reunited. Still not the same without Glenn though. 😔

As a result of me putting off doing revision, I ended up making a trailer, which I attached at the start. Hope you enjoy! 😊