FOUND LANDS.

chapter seven, no time to die.
[ season five, episode seven ]

BETH IS ALIVE. THAT'S what Daryl and Noah tell them. But Carol was taken. The same people who have Beth hit Carol with a car. They put her on a gurney and took her to a hospital.

Noah isn't much older than Odessa. He's nineteen, just like Theo. He knows Beth.

"Come on out." Daryl says. A young black man steps from the bushes. He isn't old, he's young. Still a teen. Just like Odessa and Beth and Theo and Carl.

As soon as Noah's eyes fall on Odessa, they widen. "Odessa?" He gasps.

Odessa's own eyes widen. "How do you know my name?" She glances at Daryl who seems just as shocked.

"Beth... she talked about you. A lot." Noah states.

"You know Beth? How?" Odessa steps forward. "Is she alive?"

"Yes. She's alive. But she won't be for much longer if we don't save her."

That was all it took for them to devise a plan to get Beth and Carol back. They're at a hospital in Atlanta. Grady Memorial, Noah tells them.

Rick, Daryl, Tyreese, Sasha, Noah, and Odessa will go get Beth and Carol. Theo, Michonne, Carl, Gabriel, and Judith will stay behind.

Rick tells Daryl what happened in his and Carol's absence. Everything.

When it's time for them to leave, Odessa kisses Judith's forehead and whispers to her and only her, "be brave, Little Ass-Kicker. Be brave unlike me."

Odessa hugs Michonne tightly and Michonne whispers to her and only her, "you're so strong, Odessa. Bring her home."

She plans on it. Odessa is not leaving Atlanta until she has Beth Greene in her arms.

When Odessa turns to say goodbye to her brother, she can't touch him. She's too scared. She can see the hurt on Carl's face and he can see the guilt on her's. "I'm so sorry." Her voice breaks.

"Don't say that," Carl quickly says. "Don't apologize to me, Des. Please don't. It's not your fault."

Odessa nods, tears in her eyes. "I love you." Her voice is so weak now.

That man broke her. Everyone can see it. He broke her heart. He broke her body. He broke her mind. He's caused a rift between her and her people. He's become a horrid attachment to her. And yet—

"I love you, too." Carl tells his big sister.

Her baby brother still loves her. Carl Grimes would never stop loving his sister. Even if she killed everyone he loved, he would always love her. That's the easy part though because Carl knows she would never kill someone he loved unless they were going to hurt him.

But now, seeing his sister so broken and defeated, it's hard. Because Odessa is the strongest person he's ever known. She's been through hell and back many times. She always bounces back but now... she hasn't bounced back not yet. Carl begins to wonder if she will.

Odessa says goodbye to Theo. They share a nod. Odessa understands it. Theo will do everything in his power to protect her younger siblings.

As they travel in the cube van, Odessa opts to sit in the back with Sasha and Tyreese. She doesn't want to be sitting between two men. And though she knows both would never hurt her and she knows they love her, she can't. Not yet.

And yet despite Sasha's blatant anger, she offers an odd sense of comfort for the young woman.

When they arrive in Atlanta, they find a building by the hospital and make it theirs. "At sundown, we fire a shot into the air. Get two of them out on patrol.Then once it's dark enough that the rooftop spotter won't see us, we go. We cut the locks on one of the stairways, take it to the fifth floor. I open the door, Daryl takes the guard out."

"How?" Tyreese asks.

"He slits his throat." Rick answers. Odessa shuffles as she remembers the way it felt when she slit Shane's throat. The way his blood covered her arms and hands and knife. The way his hand slipped down her face.

"This is all about us doing this quiet, keeping the upper hand. They're not expecting us. From there, we run out. Knives and silenced weapons. We need to be fast. Tyreese, Sasha, take them. Daryl and Odessa, you take care of whoever is in the kitchen. I got Dawn. If they're smart, the rest of them will give up. Then it'll be six on three. Seven on three once we get a weapon to Beth." Rick explains.

"Thirteen on three. The wards will help." Noah informs them.

"That's the best case? What's the worst case?" Tyreese questions, "all it takes is one of those cops going down the hall at the wrong time. Then it's not quiet. All hands on deck. We're talking about a lot of bullets flying around."

"If that's what it takes." Sasha says.

"It's not. If we get a couple of her cops alive out here, we do an even trade. Theirs for ours. Everybody gets home." Tyreese tries to reason.

"Yeah, I get it. And it might work. This will work." Rick says.

"Nah, that'll work, too. You say this Dawn, she's just trying to keep it together, right?" Daryl looks to Noah.

"Trying and doing are two different things." Noah replies.

"You take two of her cops away, what choices does she have?" Daryl asks Rick.

"Everybody goes home. Like he says," Odessa motions to Tyreese. "No one has to die. Not today."

She's had enough of the death. She's tired of the killing and watching her friends die. So now, despite all of her anger and fear, Odessa decides it time to put on her big girl underwear and save her girl and Carol.

An hour later, it's sundown. Odessa raises the gun she once stole and fires a shot into the air. She lowers her arm and puts the weapon on safety. She holsters it at her thigh.

She rushes to her hiding spot behind a nearby wall and Noah takes her place with shooting rounds into the sky.

Several minutes later, a cop car comes rushing at Noah. He runs into it and quickly regains his footing. Odessa raises her firearm carefully and points it at the man.

"Put it down, Noah."

"Put it down."

"Hands up. Turn around." The woman says to Noah. They zip-tie his wrists together.

The man looks around and asks, "where are those rotters you were shooting at?"

The two cops whirl around when they hear a gun cock behind them. There, Daryl, Rick, Sasha, and Tyreese stand with their guns raised at them.

"Hands." Rick growls.

"What do you want?" The woman asks.

"Whatever this is, we can help." The man says.

"Damn straight." Odessa emerges from the shadows the wall casted on her. The cops turn to her. They look between them frantically. "You do what we say, and we won't hurt you." Odessa tells them.

"Okay," the man says and raises his hands.

"Good. Now turn around. Put your guns on the floor and kneel." They do as told. Sasha and Daryl zip-tie them while Tyreese cuts Noah's.

"We need to talk. There's water if you need some and food." Rick says.

When Daryl and Sasha pull them to their feet the man asks, "can I ask you something?" He's looking at her father. "The way you talk, the way you carry yourselves, were you a cop? Believe it or not, I was too."

"That's Lamson. He'll be down for this. He's one of the good ones." Noah tells the two Grimes.

Suddenly, a car comes roaring towards them. Odessa is instantly firing at the car. Her and her people dive behind the dumpster when the driver starts firing at them.

As they drive off, Sasha fires her gun at the car. The back tire is blown out. They take off around the corner and stop.

EVAC HERE is wrote in big letters on a water tower. There are dozens of burnt walkers. The two bound cops take off and Sasha, Rick, and Tyreese all chase after them.

Daryl and Odessa are left looking for the other man. Daryl and Odessa creep up to the camper and he opens the door. The man comes barreling at the two.

All he has to do to Odessa to knock her down is slam his fist into the side of her head. She down instantly. Her head slams against the RV and she slumps against it.

Her ears ring and blood drips down her face. She blinks heavily, trying to shake the blurriness from her eyes.

When her vision clears, she sees Daryl and the man are both standing. Her father is here now and he has his gun pointed at the cop. Daryl had his hands out, trying to stop Rick from killing the man.

Odessa picks her gun up. She aims it at the man.  And she fires. He drops.

And he's shouting curses.

Daryl and Rick both whip around to see Odessa's arm drop at her side. The man grips his calf. "The bitch shot me!" He cries out.

Rick kneels in front of him. "Next time she shoots you, you won't be able to cry about."

They take their hostages up to the floor they made theirs. Odessa watches them and she realizes it's almost time to act.

She's going to get her Beth back.

______________________________

word count: 1,582

my heart 😩. odessa and carl love each other so much. i love them. they're my favorite brother and sister i've ever wrote.

next chapter guys... prep your tissues and garbage cans because you're gonna be crying and throwing up.

but we've met noah!!  noah and odessa have such a cute relationship. they bond over beth. theo and noah also grow pretty close too. y'all are gonna love their little trio.

and we're finally getting to see the growth in michonne and dessa's relationship. she's always cared for michonne but now they're relationship is growing and soon she's going to view her as her mother. and by season eight, she's going to claim michonne as her adopted mom. ugh, i love them.

odessa >>> everyone else. she gives no fucks. she just wants beth back and that's totally understandable.