CHAPTER FORTY FIVE » SIGN
"Nobody survives on their own anymore."

♔

"We gotta go back–"

I'd barely taken a step forwards before Olivia and Jade had swiftly moved themselves in front of me, blocking my way past.

"No," Liv stated firmly, her hand quickly moving to my shoulder within seconds after I tried to take another step. "Going back there is suicide."

"I don't care." I curled my fingers around her wrist, forcefully shoving her arm away as I set my eyes back on the pathway to the prison.

"Blaire–"

I came to a stop in my tracks, whirling my head back around to face her. "My family is back there."

Olivia's lips parted for a moment as she watched me, her hardened brown eyes softening for the slightest moment. She glanced to the side, seeming unsure on what to say, whilst my own eyes simultaneously landed on Jade. "Liv's right," she said. "Going back is suicide."

An intense irritation flared inside me at her words, and I found myself grinding my teeth together harshly, my sights still set on home.

"Blaire," Olivia started again, any ounce of previous hostility already replaced with a much calmer tone. "Listen–"

"Bullshit," I snapped, my shoe scuffing roughly against the ground as I stormed past Olivia. "This is bullshit."

"No, Blaire." She spoke with the firm, assertiveness from before again, the words erupting from her tongue almost venomously. "This is how you survive. How we survive."

"Liv," I started again, her name falling from my mouth in exasperation. "I'm not asking you to come back with me–"

"So what, you think you'll make it on your own?" A smile of disbelief began to pull at her lips. "Even if you get back there, what are you gonna do when you realise everyone else has left too?" She took a step forwards, her eyes narrowed. "You think they're all gonna be waiting around for someone to come back? For you to come back?"

"That's–"

"No, Blaire, their asses will already be out of there by now trying to survive!" I inhaled sharply, bringing my bottom lip between my teeth as I held Olivia's gaze, unable to find it within myself to back down. "This frustration, th–this wild desperation to go storming back there – it's going to get you killed."

"But helping you look for Jade was different, right?" I bit back before I could stop myself. "Almost getting myself killed for your non-existent group was different too, huh?"

Olivia's jaw clenched, her eyes ablaze. "I was desperate, Blaire. You would have done the damn same."

"No, Olivia," I ground out. "I wouldn't have put people's lives in danger like that–"

She let out a breath of disbelief, sparing a glance to the side. "Then what are you trying to do right now then?!"

"I'm not forcing you to come with me!"

"Fine!" She snapped, her voice cutting sharply through the air. She looked down at me, shaking her head. "Go back. Get yourself killed. It's your funeral."

"Liv–" Jade began to interject, until Olivia held her hand up, her eyes still focused on me.

"You know, you are so loved," she started again. "Glenn, Rick, Daryl, Carl, Maggie, your mom – they love you so much. Are you really willing to risk losing that? On the basis of there being one tiny, minuscule, possible chance that someone might still be there?"

"You don't–" I paused, dismissing what I was about to respond. I wanted to tell her that she didn't understand – but she did. She understood more than anyone.

"Blaire, we'll look for them, and we'll find them," Jade spoke up, moving closer towards us both, her soft eyes and gentle voice providing some sense of assurance. "But we have to do it the right way – together."

"Nobody survives on their own anymore, Blaire," Olivia continued. "So survive with us instead."

~

"Hey!" Olivia shouted out to me, likely still irritable from the lack of sleep we'd had. "Slow the hell down!" I ignored her, feeling a strong pang of annoyance to snap back at her, the frustration most likely caused by tiredness. I'd barely slept the last few nights – my mind had been swarmed with worried thoughts, and desperate ideas for a plan to find the others. "Blaire!"

Finally becoming fed up with how loud she was being, knowing that could bring unwanted attention, either from walkers or even survivors of the Governor's army, I turned back around sharply. "Would you keep your voice down?!"

"I wouldn't have to shout if you didn't keep rushing ahead!" She called back, only lowering her voice slightly. Frustration ran through my veins.

"Listen," I started, storming back over to her, the three of us all coming to a simultaneous stop on the trail. "We've spent the last few days getting supplies trying to figure out trails – and now we've got one to go on properly. So what the hell is your problem today? What were you expecting when you woke up? A nice, slow gentle start. We'd only take a light search, pick some daisies maybe–"

"Don't give me this shit," she snapped back, glancing at me disapprovingly. "Of course that's not what I'd expected."

"Then what the hell did you think was gonna happen?" I hissed back.

"I thought you'd at least have calmed your ass down by now–"

"Stop it!" Jade burst out, halting Olivia before could she finish, and also snapping me out of my emotionally charged haze of anger.

"I know you're both angry, okay," she started, moving to step in the middle us both. "But arguing isn't going to help. We need to find the rest of our people."

"We have nothing to go on," Olivia responded bitterly, gritting her teeth together. "Absolutely nothing. We can't wander through here aimlessly. The shit that went down at the prison drew every walker for miles. We need to find shelter, weapons, more food–"

"Fuck this," I muttered, turning my back on both of them, storming in the direction I'd been trying to head towards, my hands shaking angrily as I stuffed them in my pockets.

"Blaire!" I shook my head, continuing down the trail. "Blaire!"

We'd been heading south, which was where the prison bus was supposed to have gone. However, we'd spent the majority of yesterday and this morning picking up the main trail from the prison. It was the most dangerous, considering how many walkers would be lurking nearby, and perhaps even members of the Governor's army too. But I knew it was the most likely place we'd be able to find any tracks – even if there was nothing so far.

"You've got a damn death wish," Olivia fired back at me once she'd caught up, tugging me back by my jacket sleeve.

"Just– just stop!" I snapped, attempting to shrug her off, but she held her grip on me firmly.

"No, you listen to me right now," she ordered. "I get what you're going through. Jade and I were apart for months–"

"Okay, if you get it then why the hell aren't you helping me? Instead of complaining about damn things we don't have control of," I retorted back, finally pulling out of her grip. "Fuck you, Olivia."

"Yeah, and fuck you too," she responded, her eyes narrowing harshly. I shook my head, beginning to walk away from her again. "That wasn't an invitation for you to leave!"

"Honestly, Olivia, if you think for one second that I–" I stopped in my tracks, spotting the shape of a stationary vehicle through the gap between the trees. "Shit–"

I surged forwards, pushing my way through bushes and brambles that blocked my path, trying desperately not to get my foot caught, but unable to tear my eyes away from the sight in front of me.

"Blaire? Blaire, what's going on?"

And then the smell hit me. It hit at full force, no remorse whatsoever; an overwhelming, overpowering stench in the air that caused my stomach to churn.

The smell of death.

"Holy shit."

"Someone's already been here," I said quietly as I stopped a short distance away, feeling the presences of Olivia and Jade as they stopped beside me.

The doors to the bus rested lazily, pulled slightly from their hinges. And the glass from the windows littered the surrounding ground. Then there was the pile of lifeless bodies, slowly but surely decaying, leaving the smell of rotting corpses to linger in the air.

"I'm gonna puke."

I'd hardly even registered Olivia's comment, instead focusing on moving closer to the remains. I approached with caution, the horrific sights causing my stomach to lurch. But I had to know, I had to know if Glenn was here.

"They've all got wounds to the head," Jade commented, moving round to take a look at the opposite side to me. "Someone's been here, it has to be someone from the prison," she glanced up at me before focusing her attention back on the bloodied walkers at her feet. "Looks like they went through the whole bus trying to find somebody."

I moved closer, unsure of what to make of the whole situation, until Olivia spoke up. "I think I found something." I turned my attention back to her, as she held up an open locket in her hand.

I recognised the piece of jewellery almost instantly, rushing forwards to retrieve it. "Oh my god." I ran my fingers over the worn-down gold locket, my eyes landing on the tiny photograph inside. "This is my mom's." I looked up at Olivia, a sudden spark of hope igniting within me. "She was here."

"You reckon she got out?" Jade asked, her eyes flitting between myself and the trail ahead, perhaps where some tracks still remained.

"Wait, is that you as a baby?" Olivia interjected, snatching the locket from my hand before I could even utter a response. I nodded, causing a grin to widen on her face. "You were so cute." Her face fell moments later, and I glanced over to see Jade shooting her a stern glare. "What?"

"Look, I'm sure Blaire was an adorable baby but–"

I found myself tuning out, my attention caught on a few empty bullet shells on the ground, along with some fairly fresh looking footprints. I smiled to myself, knowing we were close on somebody's trail.

"Blaire?" Jade questioned as I turned back to face them both. "You good?"

A hopeful grin pulled at my lips, fuelled by a newfound feeling of determination. "Let's go."

~

It had now been days since everything went down at the prison, maybe almost a week.

"I think this is the best we're gonna get right now," Jade stated defeatedly, lazily dropping her bag down on the floor, weapons following.

We'd spent the last day or two following the trail until it ran cold, the three of us eventually coming to a point where we were unable to pick up anything else. As Olivia rightly commented, Daryl's slightly lame attempt of teaching a few of us how to track a while ago was only ever going to get us so far.

"I'd take this piece of shit over the ground any day," Olivia said, flopping down onto the nearest arm chair with an exhausted sigh.

Night had fallen incredibly quickly today, and we'd spent a while searching for a safe place to rest, instead finding an empty, desolate house – which was pretty lucky for us, considering it looked like there was a storm coming.

"Tomorrow morning we gather supplies and we head out again," I stated, aware of the brief look Jade and Olivia shared. I knew they were tiring, I was too. But I wasn't ready to give up.

"Let's just make sure we get a decent rest tonight, we can think up a plan tomorrow," Jade said, crossing over the room to stand behind Olivia, placing a hand on her girlfriend's shoulder.

"Already got one," I replied, moving past them both without another word, heading into the kitchen. It took me a few tries – opening up different cupboards and then closing them again until I found what I wanted. "Aha," I said, pulling out a bottle jack daniels. This will do. "In the meantime," I continued, heading back into the other room, holding the bottle triumphantly in the air. "We've got this."

A grin etched it's way onto Olivia's face as she stood up from the chair. "I knew there was a reason we kept you around."

"Alcohol won't solve our problems," Jade commented, however there was still a joking tone in her voice. As I began to pour the jack Daniels into a few shot glasses, I noticed her move over to the other side of the room, where a picture stood on the shelf. "I wonder what happened to him."

Olivia was already in the midst of knocking back a shot glass, her eyes watering as she pulled it away from her mouth. She winced slightly, wiping her lips with the back of her hand. "To who?"

Jade held up the picture frame, and Olivia shrugged nonchalantly, reaching for the bottle again as if she wasn't really bothered by whose house we were residing in – or whose alcohol we were currently consuming.

"You think he turned?" Jade asked, placing the photograph back on the shelf. She kept her back turned from us, running her finger over a couple of dust covered books in curiosity.

"Maybe," I answered, stepping forwards, slightly intrigued. "Or maybe he left. Maybe he's still out there."

"But we'll never know," Liv finished darkly, setting the empty shot glass back down again with a small crash. "Time to lighten up you two."

She turned back to the table, already beginning to fill the other two empty glasses up. Jade and I exchanged a look but said nothing more, making our way over. Olivia handed us a glass each, raising hers high in the air. "Cheers," she grinned, whilst Jade and I both followed her lead, raising our own glasses. Simultaneously, the three of us knocked them together, a loud clink reverberating through the air.

"Cheers."

~

The storm passed overnight, and I instead awoke to a pleasant sunshine. We'd practically raised the house for supplies, filling our bags to the brim before we set off early in the morning.

Deciding it was still our best bet, we kept to the obvious paths, eyes wide and alert for any sign of life – whether it was walker or human.

"Hey, look through there," Jade broke the silence, indicating towards a small break in the trees. Liv and I slowed down, taking a few steps back to look through. "Could be a stream nearby. We can stop, fill our bottles up."

Olivia and I both nodded in agreement, and a small amount of excitement rose in me. The thought of clean water to drink and even to wash in couldn't help but make me smile.

I followed closely behind Olivia, only to soon find that, to my disappointment, there wasn't a stream anywhere nearby. We'd just stepped onto train tracks.

"Okay, this could be a long shot," Olivia started, capturing my attention as I realised I'd been staring down at the train tracks deep in thought. "But..."

I was pretty sure on what she was going to say – follow the tracks. And that's what Glenn would do. What Rick would do. What our whole group would do.

"I mean, have we really got anything to lose?" Jade asked. I lifted my head up to meet her gaze, shaking my head.

"No," I stated, shifting the position of the rucksack on my back in preparation. "Let's do it."  

So we did. We walked for hours, heading miles down the tracks – only stopping briefly to eat food or rehydrate. Oddly, we hadn't run into many walkers, just a couple of lone, wandering ones that we managed to put down quietly.

"Look," Olivia spoke up after a while, eyes fixated on something in the distance. "Look at this."

She jogged further ahead, Jade and I picking up our walking pace to follow after her, whatever she was pointing at finally becoming clearer. It was a sign.

I came to a stop in front of the large object, which seemed to show a map of Georgia, with what appeared to be the train lines highlighted. In the middle, there was a bright yellow star, boasting the words "Terminus. Sanctuary for all. Community for all. Those who arrive, survive."

I read the words over and over, trying to gain a feel of them. The first thing that struck me as strange was the fact that people would advertise their whereabouts, not knowing who could turn up there. But, as I thought about it further, if anyone from our group had seen this sign, they would have headed there without a doubt. This could be how we found them. How we found Glenn.

"Now hang on there a minute officer speedy," Olivia started as I prepared to head down the tracks again, a newfound hopeful energy bursting through me. "Are we sure about this?"

"No," I admitted truthfully, craning my neck to glance back at the sign once more. "But it's the best shot we have. We've been looking for something for days. This is it."

"Yeah, I think Blaire's right," Jade added, nodding at my words in agreement, a small assuring smile ghosting on her face. "This might be the only chance we get."

Olivia's eyes wandered back to the sign hesitantly. "I don't know," she said, sounding a little distant – as if she was deep in troubled thoughts. "There's just something not right about this."

I understood where she was coming from, and I felt it slightly too. But I was desperate. Perhaps too desperate.

I swallowed thickly, noticing them both watching cautiously, waiting for me to make the call. "I'm willing to take the risk," I decided. "I have to find him. He's the only thing that's keeping me going."

"I know," Liv responded softly, shifting her gaze to the ground for a moment. "I know what you're going through."

"Then you know that I have to do this."

"Okay," Olivia eventually gave in, still with a hint of uncertainty in her voice. "Okay, let's do it."

❃

Words: 3052
Published: 21st November 2017

Sorry for lack of updates, I've been so busy and haven't had any time to sit down and properly write something. This chapter also proved to be much more challenging to write than I'd anticipated.

It's a little bit stop and start, but tbh after Blaire's initial freak out bit I started to struggle for ideas to make the chapter a decent length. I'll probably go back and edit this at some point but as for now I just wanted to update.

So how are you all finding the new season of twd?