CHAPTER THIRTY ONE » FAMILIAR FACES
"We need you."

♔

It was early in the morning when I stepped out of the cells, noticing Glenn and Hershel stood talking in the corner. I made my way over, standing beside Glenn. "Hey, what's going on?"

"We were discussing Rick," Hershel replied, his eyes flickering back to Glenn's momentarily before resting on mine. "Glenn's thinking of going to find him again."

"Yeah, I'll go too," I said, glancing behind me at Carl, who was sat, staring at the table again. I exhaled heavily, turning back around again. "I spoke to Carl yesterday and he needs his dad. I'll bring him back this time. You good with keeping people calm round here?"

Hershel nodded, a gentle smile on his face. "That's what I do best

"Oh, and would you mind checking on Olivia?" I asked, my mind wandering back to my friend, who, despite everything, i'd missed yesterday. I wanted to check up on how she was doing, I just hadn't had the time. "I don't think she left her cell yesterday."

"Of course," Hershel smiled again, and I wondered how he could be so calm. I was freaking out. There was so much to do, so much to deal with. I honestly had no idea how Rick did it.

"Thank you." I nodded as we parted ways, taking Glenn's hand in mine, the two of us silently making our way to dark corridors.

"You reckon he's still down here?" Glenn eventually asked as I reached for the flashlight in my pocket, turning it over in my hand.

"Definitely. He's probably not far from here. Just follow the walker trail." The two of us continued walking, the light guiding us as much as possible. I did my best to avoid treading on and corpses and body parts. It looked and smelled revolting down here.

"Rick?" Glenn called out, the both of us pausing momentarily to listen out for any movement. "Rick, you down here?"

There was no response.

Glenn reached for my hand again as we began heading further, me scanning the flashlight around us in hopes of spotting our leader. "Wait-" Glenn stopped me, taking the flashlight and shining it in a corner I'd just glanced over. Sure enough, I spotted Rick's figure knelt down on the floor.

The two of us crept cautiously towards him, unsure of the reaction we were going to meet. Hopefully not the same one I was given.

"Rick?" I said softly, stopping in front of him and kneeling down. He was staring at the ground, his face emotionless. I placed my hands on his face, tilting his head, hoping to make him look at me properly. "Rick, please."

"You should go," he said, his voice low. "Go back to the others."

"Rick, come on man-" Glenn said, sounding defeated from seeing his friend, his leader, in this state.

"Listen, I know you're hurting, we all are. I know that you're grieving the most and that you need time and space, which I gave you yesterday," I started, lifting his head up a little more so he'd look me in the eyes again. "But it's time to come back now."

Rick said nothing in reply and I turned to Glenn, hoping he'd be able to say something to change Rick's mind. He came closer, stopping beside both of us. "At least come back for a while. Go see Carl. Just let everyone know you're okay. Please."

Even after Glenn's words, he still didn't move. He wouldn't even look at us anymore. I wasn't sure if we were ever going to get through to him.

"Listen, I can't even imagine what you're going through right now. I suppose maybe it feels like your whole world has come crashing down. But what I do know for sure is that you've got Carl and the baby now. So you need to keep going, to keep leading us. You need to keep being Rick Grimes. The Rick Grimes that I know. That Carl knows. That we all know. Don't lose yourself. Please. We need you."

Rick looked up at me and then back to Glenn, eventually rising from the ground, his grip tight on my arm. "Alright."

I smiled, relieved that we'd finally got a response out of him. "Alright."

~

I opened the door to our cell block, wincing as the metal screeched, catching everyone's attention. I suddenly felt very conscious of the eyes on me and began to shrink back slightly.

"Everybody okay?" Rick asked as he stepped out from behind me, a similar look of discomfort on his face as well.

"Yeah, we are," Maggie answered, looking at him with deep concern from where she was stood.

"What about you?" Hershel questioned.

"I cleared out the boiler block," he replied as Glenn paused beside me, the two of us sharing a look.

"How many were there?"

"I don't know," Rick answered with a small shrug. "A dozen, two dozen. I have to get back. Just wanted to check on Carl."

I turned my head to look up at him. "Rick, we can handle taking out the bodies. You don't have to-"

He cut me off, shaking his head. "No, I do," he glanced over, meeting my eyes, before looking at Daryl. "Everyone have a gun and a knife?"

"Yeah," Daryl responded. "We're running low on ammo, though."

Glenn cleared his throat. "Blaire, Maggie and me were planning on making a run this afternoon," he said. "Found a phone book with some places we can hit, look for bullets and formula."

"We cleared out the generator room," Daryl added. "Axel's there trying to fix it in case of emergency. We're gonna sweep the lower levels as well.

"Good good," Rick nodded, stepping back towards the door.

I grabbed his arm, attempting to stop him from going back. "Rick, wait-" But he merely pulled away, disappearing into the darkness again.

I sighed, running my hands through my hair. This was a mess. Glenn placed his hand on my shoulder, rubbing it gently. "You did as much as you could," he said quietly. I was aware of the others still watching and looked up, giving them all a reassuring look.

"I'll try talk to him," Hershel assured with a nod as we began to head down the steps.

"Thank you," I replied. Everybody had begun to go about their business again so I headed towards Daryl, giving him a small smile. "You alright here? We're gonna get going in a bit."

"You sure you wanna go?" He asked, frowning at me a little. "You've been doin' a lot lately."

"I need to keep busy," I replied, with a shrug. I glanced to my left where Glenn and Maggie were talking, their eyes occasionally wandering towards Daryl and I. "We'll be fine," I assured. "See you later bud."

Daryl gave me a gentle nod as I turned towards Glenn and Maggie, heading in their direction. They both smiled, their conversation halting as I reached them. "Right, get your stuff together and we'll head off. We've got a long ass day ahead."

~

"Glenn, get that duck," I called out, flashing my torchlight towards a little toy duck I'd just located in the store. I heard Maggie let out an amused laugh as Glenn's very confused face came into view.

"What?"

"Get that duck," I repeated, raising my eyebrows as I nodded my head in the direction of it.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah," I said, struggling not to laugh at the confusion still written over his face.

"A baby growing up in a prison could really use some toys," Maggie said and I nodded in agreement.

"See, Mags understands."

Glenn jokingly rolled his eyes at me before grabbing the duck and stuffing it into the cart. I turned back to my position on watch, fiddling with the gun in my hands.

We'd had quite an easy day. The journey was quick, the walkers were easy to take care of and we hadn't seen any people around. It had gone smoothly. Almost too smoothly.

"Got anything back there?" I called out a while later, craning my head around the corner. Glenn headed towards me, grinning as he held up a basket full of items.

"We just hit the powdered formula jackpot."

"Thank god," I said, letting out a relieved laugh. There was absolutely loads in the cart, enough to last for a while; maybe a month or two. It was probably the best news we'd had in ages, knowing we could provide well enough for baby Judith.

"I also got beans, batteries, cocktail wieners, many mustards," he listed off. "It's a straight shot back to the prison from here. Probably make it in time for dinner."

"Excellent."

The three of us began heading back to the car, Glenn passing me a smaller basket of items to load into the trunk.

"I like the quiet," Maggie started, catching my attention. I turned towards her, listening to what she had to say. "Back there, back home, you can always hear them outside the fence, no matter where you are."

I shared a small smile with her, agreeing completely. We'd had a nice quiet day, just the three of us. It was almost tranquil. It was a nice feeling, something I hadn't felt in a while. I was glad to share it with two people who meant a hell of a lot to me. I could only hope it would last.

My back was still turned, but heavy footsteps behind me managed to catch my attention. I saw Maggie's eyes widen slightly, her hand inching towards her gun. I was about to turn around and do the same, my heart beginning to thud with slight panic, but then I realised that I recognised the voice.

My blood ran cold in my veins.

"And where is it y'all good people are calling home?"

❃

Words: 1643
Published: 31st December 2016

Wow. My last update of 2016.

Thought I'd leave it on a nice little cliffhanger for you all.

I've had a great year with this story and I can't wait to continue it through 2017.

Thanks for all your reads, votes and comments. 💜