FOUND LANDS.

chapter ninteen, wolves not far.
[ season six, episode two ]

THE NEW WORLD ORDER is death. That's all it is. Whether the death is a sacrifice, an innocent person murdered, someone bit by a walker and turned. It's death. The world is death.

The first day of the apocalypse, Odessa cried because she was worried about her dad. She didn't know what was going on in the world. She just knew they couldn't get to her father and that's what scared her the most.

Odessa would never have classified herself as a strictly good person. Sure she took care of her brother and had good grades. But she got into fights at school, she smoked weed sometimes, she even got drunk once at a party.

Shane picked her up and she made him promise to never tell her parents. She assumes he didn't because her father has never brought it up.

In this new world, people have changed. Some have changed for the better. And some have changed for the worst.

Odessa is one of the rare ones that have changed for both good and bad.

Odessa stands on the porch with Judith in her arms when she hears the first scream. She jumps and wraps her arms tighter around Judith.

Her eyes widen when a dirty man comes running from seemingly nowhere and slices Shelly across the stomach. She gasps but quickly goes silent. She quietly steps inside and locks the door.

She looks at Carol who stands in the kitchen. Carol looks at her and sees the horror in her eyes. "People got over the walls," she says quietly.

Carol nods and rushes to grab Odessa's arm. "You have to stay here and protect your siblings, okay?"

"Where are you going?" Odessa panics.

"I have to save them," Carol says as Carl rushes down the stairs with a gun in hand.

"I saw them from upstairs. They're coming in from all over." Carl says.

"Stay here. Both of you," Carol orders. They nod. Odessa rushes up the steps of the house and puts Judith in her nursery.

When she comes back down she sees Enid. "Hey," Odessa says. "When did you get here?"

"Like three seconds ago." Enid answers.

"Okay," Odessa nods. Then she looks at Carl. "Don't tell Carol."

"Do not." Carl shakes his head. "If you go outside this house I swear I'll tell her and Dad."

"I can't just sit in here and do nothing, Carl. You and Enid can protect Judith and each other. Don't be stupid while I'm gone."

Then she sneaks out of the back door. As soon as the door closes behind her the horn starts to blare. She stops dead in her tracks.

Walkers.

Any walker within a thirty mile radius will hear that horn and come straight for Alexandria.

"Oh, God." Odessa whispers. She squeezes her eyes shut. "Okay, Odessa. You can do this."

She takes off.

With her pistol in hand, she searches for Alexandrian's in need of help.

When she rounds a house, there is a man stabbing his blade into the chest of an Alexandrian woman repeatedly. She stops and presses herself to the wall of the house.

She said she was done with the killing.

But she can't think of that now. Not when her life and so many more are in horrible danger. Not when so many lives have already been lost in such a short amount of time.

She clicks the safety of her gun. And it's done. She's about to take her fifteenth life. She rounds the corner. The man looks up at her and stands. Before he can do anything he's shot dead.

Odessa steps over his body where a bullet hole rests perfectly between his eyes.

Outside the walls, Morgan and Theo return. They rush to the crashed semi truck. Morgan throws the door open and kills the walker inside. He switches off the horn. But it's already too late. The damage is done.

"What happened?" Morgan asks Spencer, who stands on the other side of the truck.

"Someone, a group, they got inside the walls." Spencer informs them. Theo's heart drops. "They're killing people."

"We need to get in there. You comin'?" Morgan asks. Spencer doesn't respond. Morgan nods. "Hide."

With that, Theo and Morgan rush inside Alexandria. They stop when they see man hacking away at one of their people.

Theo's mouth opens in shock. Who the hell are these people?

The man starts to run at them. Morgan readies his stick. The man stops. He paces back and first before raising his axe and pointing it at the two. "Quick... or slow?"

"Leave." Morgan says firmly. "Please."

The man has a W carved into his forehead. His brows furrow as he tries to remember where the hell he'd seen it before.

But then his eyes widen.

And he does remember.

Rick drives straight into the car in front of them. When he hits it, the back opens and the torsos of those legs spill onto the car.

Theo yelps, shocked and disgusted. He sees the W carved into their foreheads.

It was the day Tyreese died. The walkers that had been cut in half.

WOLVES NOT FAR was spray-painted on a brick wall in Noah's community. These are the people that killed Noah's family.

Theo's eyes narrow. Now he needs to avenge Noah's lost family. 

"Gonna be slow." The man smirks.

He charges the two men. But someone intercepts him. The man is stabbed in the gut by whoever the person is. When they pull their knife from his stomach he drops.

The person pulls down their bandana. It's Carol. Theo lets out a sigh of relief. "I could have stopped him." Morgan tells her.

"The others back?" Carol asks as she crouches by the dead man and uses his blood to draw a W on her face.

"It's happening out there." Theo says.

"They're doing it now?" Carol asks in disbelief.

"We had to." Theo answers. "The edge broke off."

"These people don't have guns." Carol tells them.

"I could have stopped him." Morgan says again.

"If they had guns they'd be using them." Carol says.

"Did you hear me?" Morgan asks. Theo glances between the two. Where did this sudden tension come from between them? And it's not the good type of tension either.

Carol ignores his words, "we have to get to the armory before they do. If we keep moving, it might work."

"You don't have to kill people," Morgan frowns.

"Of course we do," Carol scoffs.

"Carol!" Both Carol and Theo look at him. "You don't like it."

"I'm gonna get to the armory and I need y'all's help." Carol snaps.

Odessa Grimes takes her sixteenth life as she fires a bullet straight into the heart of a woman. She stops when she reaches her body. She stares down the woman. She spits.

Her eyes move to the dead Alexandria. She lifts her gun and fires into his skull so he doesn't come back as a walker.

No more than fifty feet away, Theo Blake is tackled. He cries out when his head slams against a rock. His vision blurs and his ears ring. Blood pools under his head as the Wolf tries with all his might to stab his machete straight through Theo's chest.

He lets out a scream as the tip of the blade is pushed into his chest. Before Theo's life can come to an end the Wolf on top of him is killed.

He's thankful for whoever. He didn't have to kill a man. And the man didn't kill him.

A set of hand grabs Theo and pulls him up. He's ready to fight but when his eyes lock with Aaron's he calms down. "What's happening out there?" Aaron asks him.

"The herd. It got out," Theo breathes out. "And it's coming straight for us."

Aaron stares at Theo as he processes his words.

The herd.

The one with thousands and thousands of walkers is coming straight for Alexandria.

Once it's all over, Odessa walks through the streets of Alexandria, her eyes well with tears. These people didn't deserve this. Not at all.

They lived safely behind these walls with their families. But today, it all ended. So many lives were lost in these streets. People were killed in their own homes. The place where they're meant to feel safest.

Odessa stops when a dead man on the ground starts to snarl. He has no legs. They've been hacked from his body. The walker reaches for her.

Odessa sucks in a deep breath and kneels next to him. She slowly unsheathes her knife and stabs it into his brain. She yanks it out.

These goddamn W people.

_______________________________

word count: 1,455

odessa continues to rack up on kills. sixteen is a hell of a lot. and she gets more by the end of this act. but the killing is really starting to take a toll on her. we see that in later chapters and a lot in the next book.

also this is the chapter that really starts theo's development towards the bloodthirsty, revenge seeking theo we meet in damnation. now that is a version of him you guys need to prepare for. he is violent and mean and unstoppable. and we love that for him.

and yes, i know this chapter is short but in my defense the last chapter was really fucking long. anyway, i might start rushing out chapters like three at a time because i'm already four chapters into damnation. i'm still working on the cast introduction and graphics though. 

next chapter is a cole chapter!! i love him omfg.