FOUND LANDS.

chapter twelve, a new life begins.
[ season five, episode twelve ]

WHEN THE GATES ROLL open, Odessa sucks in a breath. Inside are houses and clean streets and no walkers.

Something hits the trash can and everyone has their weapons pointed at it. A possum scurries out and Daryl quickly releases a bolt into the poor animal.

He picks it up and a man in a peach colored shirt rolls the gate open the rest of the way. He stares at the dead animal.

"We brought dinner." Daryl holds it up.

It takes everything in Theo not to laugh. He just smirks at Daryl's way of greeting.

"It's okay," Aaron says and motions for the group to comes inside. "Come on in, guys."

They do as told. They all stroll inside, guards up and looking around. The man shuts the gate behind them and starts, "before we take this any further I need you all to turn over your weapons. Stay, you hand them over."

"Yeah, no." Odessa speaks up. "Not gonna happen, Beta Male."

His eyes shoot to her. She cocks her head to the side with narrowed eyes. Rick steps in before Odessa can ruin this for them. "We don't know if we want to stay."

"It's fine, Nicholas." Aaron says to the man.

Odessa laughs at the name. Already, she doesn't like this man. And now he doesn't like her either.

"If we were gonna use them, we would have started already." Cole pips.

A woman approaches the scene with a smile. She has big brown eyes, her hands are folded behind her back. She's clean; her hair is washed, her clothes aren't grimy or blood stained. She wears a pair of jeans and a red and blue flannel over a black T-shirt.

"Let them talk to Deanna first." She says. Nicholas and Aaron both turn to look at her. Aaron smiles at her.

"Who's Deanna?" Abraham calls.

"She knows everything you'd want to know about this place." The woman says. "My name is Kathleen Cooper, you can call me Kath. I'm Deanna's assistant. You, why don't you start?" She nods at Rick.

A walker snarls from outside the gate. "Theo." Rick says. The nineteen year old turns and raises his rifle. He fires a silence shot into its head.

The cloth part of the gate slides shut as Rick says, "it's a good thing we're here."

Aaron and Kathleen take them to Deanna's home. Rick goes first. The others wait around outside. They're anxious, that much is obvious. People walk by Deanna's house to steal a quick glance at the dirty newcomers.

Odesa shifts uncomfortably. Kathleen remains on the porch, her arms crossed as she watches the group. She's cautious, just as they are.

They can tell the woman does not trust easy.

Rick exits the home soon after. It isn't until after Daryl goes is it Odessa's turn. When she enters the house, an older lady greets her.

"Hello," she says. Odessa glances at her as she leads the teen to her living room. "Please, have a seat."

Odessa sits in the chairs across from the couch. It's the softest thing she's felt since her mattress at the prison.

"Do you mind if I record our talk?" Deanna asks.

Odessa makes a face but responds with, "sure."

"You're Odessa, right? Rick's oldest child?" Deanna asks her.

"Yeah," Odessa nods. "You're Deanna, I assume?"

"Correct." Deanna says. "How old were you when this all started, Odessa?"

"Sixteen." She answers.

"Oh, my," Deanna says. "So you're what, seventeen, eighteen now?"

"Seventeen." Odessa responds.

Deanna nods, "it must've been so hard to be ripped away from your normal life and thrusted into this new world."

"Well, considering the week before this all started I was suspended from school and my dad had shot the same day," Odessa clicks her tongue.

"How would you feel about starting school here?" Deanna asks.

Odessa's eyes widen. Her heart drops. "No. Nope. I'm not doing that. You'd have to drag me there to get me to do school work."

Deanna laughs. "Understandable. Besides, you'll be an adult soon, school isn't really relevant to you anymore, is it?"

"No," Odesa shakes her head.

"Your group, how long have you known them?" Deanna questions.

"Some longer than others," Odessa glances at the window. "The longest— since the very beginning, the shortest— only been about a month now."

"These people are your family, aren't they?" The woman quizzes. "That's what your father said, that you're family."

"Yeah, they are." Odessa tells her. "And I'll kill anyone who tries to hurt any of them."

Death and killing isn't hard for Deanna to grasp like Odessa thought it would be so she tests. "I've killed people. Fourteen of them."

Deanna's brows raise at this new information. "Fourteen. Wow, that's a lot."

"I don't take pleasure in killing people. I killed those people to protect myself and my family." Odessa says, her voice harsher now.

"No, I wasn't judging." Deanna puts her arms out as if to surrender. "It's amazing how much a person can do when it comes to protecting their loved ones."

"Do you have any family?" Odessa asks her.

"Two sons and my husband." Deanna nods. "You have your siblings and father?"

Odessa nods.

"Are any of those women out there your mother?" Deanna asks.

Odessa straightens. She sucks in a breath through her nose. Deanna notices the change in her energy straight away. She more rigid now, cut off.

"No." Odessa says firmly. "No. She died a long time ago."

"I'm so sorry," Deanna says and it sounds like she really means it.

"No," Odessa shakes her head. "It's okay. We didn't really— we didn't really get along in the years coming up to her death."

"Again, I'm sorry." Deanna says. "You've been through a lot, haven't you, Odessa?"

Odessa's mind soars. She's watched the people she loved most die. Dale, T-Dog, Hershel, Beth. She's killed her own godfather. She had to watch as many friends were buried.

To say she's been through a lot is softening the story. Odessa stares at her hands. She pulls at a hangnail.

"I've been through hell and back." Odessa admits. "I've seen things and done things you could never even imagine."

"Like what?" Deanna asks.

Odessa stands. Deanna follows. She can see the anger on Odessa's face. Not just the anger but the sadness and her past. "We're done here." Odessa says. "I'll get Theo for you."

After they finish their interviews with Deanna, a woman brings up a cart. "It's for your guns." Kathleen says. "Can't have people we don't know carrying firearms around."

They all unload their guns onto the cart as Deanna speaks. "They're still your guns. You can check them out whenever you go beyond the wall. But inside here, we store them for safety."

After Carol puts her gun on the cart, the lady says, "should've brought a bigger bin."

Minutes later, Odessa is standing in front of a mirror. It's the first real look she's gotten at herself since the farm.

Dark circles rest under her eyes, she has scars in many places. She leans closer to the mirror and brushes her hair back to examine the scar from where Otis shot her.

God, she was so lucky then. She survived and survived and survived everything that was dished out at her.

Now she was barely surviving the loss of Beth. She takes off her shirt and stares at her body. She was once so healthy. Now her ribs stuck out. She was too skinny. She was going to die if she didn't get healthy soon.

But she couldn't eat. She could not bring herself to eat. And whenever she did, it just came back up a few minutes later.

Rosita asked her a while back is she was eating healthy. Odessa just shrugged. Rosita nodded and told Odessa she needed to stay health but she had been where Odessa once was.

Odessa asked her what she meant. Rosita smiled sadly at her and said that she had an eating disorder once.

Odessa never assumed she had an eating disorder. But now that she thought about it food had made her sick ever since they were on the road after the farm.

Whatever she ate, it was in small portions.

She undresses the rest of the way and turns on the shower. Once the water is heated, she steps in. She sighs when the hot water hits her frail body.

It's feel so good. She hadn't got a hot shower since the farm. It's nice. Blood and dirt circle the drain. The blood isn't all hers. Some of it belongs to walkers. Some of it belongs to Beth. And some of it belongs to Killian.

As she remembers that night, she curls her arms around her stomach and bows her head. A small sob slips past her lips. She doesn't understand why it happened to her. Why things like this happened to anyone.

After she showers and finishes her crying, she dresses into the clothes a lady brought them. It's a pair of baggy light blue jeans and a gray shirt. She ignores the shirt and reaches into her bag. She pulls one of Beth's shirts. She holds it to her face and breaths in her scent. She's still there.

She puts it on. She looks at the counter and sees the tooth brushes that someone has laid out for them. She grabs one and brushes her teeth. She brushes them over and over. She puts on deodorant. Then she starts to brush her hair.

She comes to a knot she can't seem to untangle. She tries to get the tangle from her hair. After five minutes, she grows frustrated. After ten, she slams the brush down on the counter.

A knock comes a few seconds later, "Dessa? You okay?" It's Michonne. Odessa sighs and opens the door.

She's embarrassed. "I can't get this knot out of my hair." She tells the older woman.

"Do you want me to get it for you?" Michonne asks. Odessa nods. Michonne steps into the bathroom and grabs then brush out of the sink.

She begins to brush Odessa's hair after she sits on the toilet seat. The teen finds comfort in Michonne's motherly instincts.

After several more minutes of Michonne gently brushing Odessa's hair and only getting one, "son of a bitch, that hurt!" from the girl Michonne successfully gets the huge tangle out of Odessa's too long hair.

Odessa leaves the bathroom to find everyone else sitting around the living room. She stops and stares. "Hey," someone says.

Odessa jumps and whirls around only to see Tara standing behind her. "It's just me," Tara raises her arms in a surrendering motion. "You okay?"

Odessa shrugs. "I'm makin' it."

Tara nods and wraps her arm around the girl's shoulders. "Good. We've all been super worried about you."

Odessa shuffles and sits down on the couch. She pats the couch as if to say thanks and throws her head back, ignoring Tara's statement. She doesn't care who's been worried about her because she's fine.

Suddenly, a knock comes. Odessa jumps and spins around on the coach. Rick opens the door and they all see Deanna, "Rick, I—" she stops when she sees Rick's cleanly shaven face. "Wow. I didn't know what was under there. Listen, I don't mean to interrupt, I just wanted to stop by and see how you were all settling."

The older lady looks at them all and is very obviously taken aback by seeing all of them together. "Oh, my. Staying together. Smart."

"No one said we couldn't." Rick states.

"You said you're a family. That's what you said," Deanna looks up at him. "Absolutely amazing to me how people with completely different backgrounds and nothing in common can become that. Don't you think?"

"Everybody said you gave them jobs." Rick says.

"Yeah. Part of this place. Looks like the communists won after all." Deanna laughs.

Cole can't help but grin a little bit. Deanna reminds him of his own mother.

"Well, you didn't give me one." Rick tells her.

"I have. I just haven't told you yet. Same with Michonne and Odessa. I'm closing in on something for Sasha and Theo. And I'm just trying to figure Mr. Dixon out, but I will." Deanna tells Rick. She then looks back at him. "You look good."

She leaves after that. They all settle in for the night.

Once everyone is asleep, Odessa gets up from her spot on the couch and slowly steps over her people. She makes her way onto the porch and sits on the steps.

She sits and she thinks.

Beth and Tyreese and Bob are the things on her mind. They were all so close to being able to her here with them. Whether Alexandria is their salvation or their downfall, it's given them food, hot water, clean clothes, and a roof over their heads.

They haven't had a lot of that since the CDC. But then again, the CDC left them traumatized and Odessa wanting to kill herself.

She remembers Doctor Edwin Jenner. He was lost without his wife. She asked him to continue on with their research until the very end. So that's what he did. He did as she wished despite how much he missed her.

Odessa realizes that's what she needs to do for Beth but she just can't. Beth would want her to be okay. She would want Odessa to not take her anger out on herself. She would want her to move on eventually.

Odessa knows this.

But she just can't.

Beth Greene's death is still so new. It's scary without her. She's not here to pull Odessa back from the dark corners of her mind.

"Hey," someone says. Odessa snaps out of her thoughts when she hears the new voice.

She looks and sees the woman from earlier that day. Kathleen. "Hi." Odessa greets.

Kathleen gestures to the open spot beside Odessa. "May I?" She asks.

Odessa shrugs and Kathleen takes it as a yes. She sits beside the teenager and points at a house down the street. "That's the Anderson's house." Kathleen says.

"What about 'em?" Odessa asks.

"Pete, he's our surgeon. It wouldn't hurt to go get a check up." Kathleen informs. "You've been on the road a very long time. It may be a good idea."

"It probably would be." Odessa admits. "But I'm okay."

"I saw your tape." Kathleen tells her. "Fourteen people. That's a lot."

Odessa shrugs again. "It's what had to be done."

"You killed all those people to protect these people inside this house?" Kathleen asks, her brows raised.

"And myself. But especially them. My little brother and dad most of all," Odessa says.

"I had two brothers." Kathleen tells her. "Joel and Tommy." She looks over at Odessa. "Joel and Tommy Miller, we had different dad's. I have no idea what happened to them or Joel's daughter Sarah. I just hope they found somewhere safe."

"I'm sorry." Odessa shakes her head. "I can't imagine what it's like not knowing what happened to them."

"It's gotten better as time has went on." Kathleen tells the girl. "They lived in Texas with their, I lived in Richmond with our mom. That's how I wound up here. I was trying to get to them but the army redirected me here."

"You've been here the whole time?" Odessa gapes.

"I'm allowed outside the wall. I do a lot of solo runs." Kathleen states. "It's easier that way. I don't have to look out for people. Plus, Aiden and Nicholas are shit leaders of our actual run team."

"Nicholas is a leader of the run team?" Odessa makes a face.

"Oh, don't make that face, Miss Grimes." Kathleen tells her.

"Why not?" The teen questions.

"Because you are officially one of our newest runners."

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word count: 2,654

here's the very first chapter of what goes on inside the walls of alexandria!! so much happened in this chapter.

odessa is officially on the runner's crew (we all know what this means 🥹). odessa and michonne had a moment and i love them SO MUCH. odessa thinks she may have an eating disorder. and rick shaved his face 😱.

AND WE MET KATHLEEN!!!! she's the first oc introduced into this series since season three. but she isn't the last!! we have two more oc's to meet in the wastelands series. so predictions on kathleen?? who is she?? what's her story?? what is her story gonna be??

did y'all see that little tlou connection i made?? joel and tommy are kath's half brothers. ik the game and the show aren't in the same world, i just thought it'd be a fun little connection.