FOUND LANDS.

chapter twenty-four, not the end.
[ season six, episode nine ]

ODESSA HAD BEEN LUCKY enough to be saved by Cole before any walker could reach her. But she is unlucky enough to be surrounded by the biggest fucking idiots in Alexandria.

Aaron. Spencer. Heath. Cole. And of course herself.

Aaron is the only one that knows how to stitch wounds. When Odessa rolls up her shift, he gags. "What?" She asks. When she looks down at the wound, she can tell it's clearly infected. "Oh."

But the infected area isn't what Aaron or anyone else is looking at. They're staring at her blood. It's still dark in color with specks of black.

"Odessa," Aaron starts. Cole even gapes.

"I was bit early on." She says. All eyes shoot to her. "It wasn't deep enough to turn me but we went to the CDC. The scientist there did blood work and found out that from the bite I have black blood cells. They're slowly turning all my red and white blood cells black. And when they do, I'll die. I'm literally a dead girl walking. By now I assume it's turned at least five percent of my normal blood cells black."

All four men stare at her. They're completely shocked. Cole realizes just how lucky or perhaps unlucky Odessa Winona Grimes is.

"Are you gonna stitch me up or no?" Odessa asks Aaron.

He snaps out of his trance. "Yeah, um," he looks around for a suture kit. "I need to put some antibiotic ointment on it. The infection isn't bad. We just need Denise to treat it."

Aaron does exactly what he says he's going to do. He puts ointment on the wound, he stitches it, then he places a new bandage over it.

Odessa sits up from where she'd been laying on her side. All four men avoid her eyes. "Y'all." They all look at her. "I'm not dead yet. It's gonna take at least a couple years to finally change all of my blood cells. I'll probably even die before that."

She gets up and moves to the window. She gently moved the curtain to look outside. Walkers moan and stumble in the streets of a once safe place.

Her heart is in her throat. "Did any of you see my dad or Carl?" She turns back to the others.

"I think I saw them go into Jessie's house." Spencer tells her. She hopes and prays he's right. She's so worried about her family. "My mom was with them."

"And Theo? The others?" She asks.

"Theo was with your dad. So was Michonne and Gabriel. The others... I don't know." Spencer shakes his head.

In the sea of walkers outside, the living stop. "Alright, new plan." Rick says. "Flares from a few guns aren't enough. Too many walkers, too spread out. We're not going to armory. We need our vehicles back at the quarry. All of us drive. We'll need to round 'em up. We leave, we come back."

"Okay. But Judith... to the quarry and back." Jessie looks to Carl. Rick pinches the bridge of his nose.

"I'll take her." Gabriel steps up. "Keep her safe in my church until you all lead the walkers away."

"Can you do this?" Michonne turns to Gabriel.

"I'm supposed to. I have to." He turns back to Rick. "I will."

Gabriel is determined to make up for what he told Deanna. These are the people that saved his life when they didn't have to. They're the people who cleaned out a store and fed him. They're his family. So now he must regain their trust.

Carl nods. While he slips Judith out from under his sheet he whispers to Gabriel, "if something happens to her it won't be me or Dad you have to worry about."

Gabriel's eyes lock with his. Gabriel knows it's the truth. If something happens to this little girl under his watch, he will have to sleep with two eyes open. Because Odessa Grimes will come for him.

They put Judith under Gabriel's sheet. "Take Sam." Jessie tells Gabriel.

"No." Sam instantly argues.

"Yes, Sam, it'll be safer." Jessie tells him.

"I'm not leaving you." Sam says.

"Mom, I'm not." Sam firmly says. "I can keep going."

"Sam—" Jessie sighs.

"I can keep going. Please. Please." Sam begs. He's scared. They all are. "Let's just go."

Gabriel looks at Rick. "I'm going to keep her safe."

"Thank you." The father says. And slowly, Gabriel walks away from the rest of the group. Theo's eyes trail after him, obviously scared for the little girl and the priest.

He may have lied to Deanna about them but that's because they killed people in his church. Theo can't blame him.

Again, they all lock hands.

As they make their way through the walkers, night settles over them. Theo is behind Jessie, still holding her hand. Carl is behind him. Kathleen is behind Ron.

Suddenly, Sam stops.

"Sam?" Jessie asks her youngest. "Come on, come on. Sweetheart? Sam?"

Panic sets in. Theo's heart is in his stomach. As they urge Sam to come on, walkers latch onto the young boy.

Kathleen gasps. Her eyes go wide.

"Mom!" Sam screams as the walkers take him to the ground. And he dies in the exact way Carol described to him. The monsters eat him alive.

Jessie screams. She's in pure agony. Her child has been ripped away from her. Devoured before her eyes. She's in pain.

"Jessie!" Theo gasps. "Jessie, come with us!"

When the walkers grab onto Jessie Anderson, she's numb. She doesn't scream. She doesn't sob. She simply stares. She's empty. Her baby is dead.

"Rick!" Theo says. He's pulling and pulling and pulling. Jessie still holds onto his hand. "Rick!"

Rick looks at Theo. He brings his axe down on Jessie's arm over and over until Theo is released. Theo falls on the ground. Carl is quick to help him stand.

Rick doesn't look at the boys though. His eyes fall on Ron Anderson, the bot who's lost his entire family.

"You." He says. He has Theo's pistol in his hand. He must've dropped it when he fell. Ron has tears in his eyes. He's angry. He's so angry. "You."

But instead of Ron killing Rick Grimes, Kathleen plunges her knife straight through the throat of a young boy who, perhaps, wanted to die. He gurgles, his own blood spilling from his mouth and the hole in his throat.

He fires the gun before he drops. Walkers pile onto him. Theo checks himself rapidly for a wound. There isn't one.

But instead, Carl Grimes looks at his father. Rick gasps. Blood falls down Carl's face from where his eye once was.

"Dad?"

Odessa jumps up when the door to the infirmary bangs open. She's so worried. There were shots and screams outside. Instead of it being someone injured, it's Denise. Aaron and Heath rush to her. "You okay?" Spencer asks her.

"I'm fine. How are my patients?" Denise asks them.

"They're doing well. We moved them upstairs just in case." Odessa tells her. She nods. "How in the holy hell did you get through that?"

"There was one of those—"

"Oh, my God." Aaron gasps. Odessa rushes to the window. As she looks out, she sees something horrible.

Running towards the infirmary is Theo, Michonne, Rick, and Kathleen. And Rick is holding her baby brother.

She gasps, backs away from the window. Her ears ring. Her eyes well with tears. What's happened to her brother?

Denise opens the door for them. Rick rushes in. Michonne and the others behind him.

"Is this a gunshot?" Denise panics.

"Handgun. Close range." Michonne explains. Odessa can barely see what's happening.

Her eyes are on Carl. Her brother. The boy she helped raise. The boy she's loved more than anything in the world. He's on a gurney, blood all over his face. His eyes is missing.

"Dad?" Odessa's weak voice splits the Earth. Rick's eyes move to her. And it's like something in him breaks... it snaps. Rick unsheathes his axe. He opens the door. And it shuts behind him.

Odessa lets out a sob. Her brother is dying on this gurney. He was shot in the face. And her dad just walked out of the door into an ocean of death.

Odessa looks at Carl. She grabs her twin blades. "Odessa!" Michonne shouts at her. "Odessa. Don't you dare walk out that door!"

Odessa doesn't listen. She opens the door. And she's gone. Just like her father. She's just as angry. She's fuming, she's scared, she wants to kill.

She stabs the walker closest to her.

The pain in her side is gone. She can't feel it. There's too much adrenaline pumping through her veins.

There's one word on her mind.

Carl.

She's out here fighting these walkers for her brother. She hopes to whatever God there is that Denise can save him. Because if she can't, Odessa might just kill herself.

Michonne, Heath, Aaron, Spencer, Theo, Cole, and Kathleen join the father and daughter.

"Knock 'em away! Drive 'em down!" Rick shouts. Eric and Olivia come rushing from a house. "We can beat 'em! We can beat 'em!"

More and more people join them. Odessa grits her teeth as she stabs walker after walker after walker.

She's never felt something like this in her life. She was scared when Carl was shot before, when they had to wait in the hospital during her father's surgery after he'd been shot. She was terrified when she was separated from her family. But nothing compares to this feeling. This is pure dread.

Hundreds and hundreds of walkers against no more than twenty people. This is what they are here for. To protect these people, to protect Alexandria.

Odessa's ears ring.

They fight.

They fight for their lives. They fight for each other's lives. They fight for Alexandria.

Rosita, Tara, Eugene, Carol, and Morgan join their fight.

Cole brings his axe down into the skull of a walker. It splits down the middle. He grunts as he yanks it out.

Theo stabs his blade into a walker. He kicks it in the chest. It falls back into another walker. Kathleen swiftly stabs her knife into the fallen walkers skull.

They share a nod.

"Move it! Back up!" Rick yells to the others. As they back into a wall, Alexandria is lit on fire.

They all stop when a warm orange light takes over the dark town. They look around, confused. Someone has lit something on fire. It's coming in the direction of the lake.

"Don't let up!" Rick screams.

They don't let up.

God, they do not let up.

This is not their end.

Walkers turn away from them and stumble towards the fire. They are met with more blades.

Still, the walkers near the group at the wall still need to meet their ends.

Everyone fights.

No gets to sit this one out.

They're all covered in blood. They're all exhausted. They're all in pain. But God forbid the walkers take Alexandria.

This is their town.

This is not their end.

Theo Blake isn't tired. He keeps killing. He's scared though. He watched the boy that came to him for help die. He watched a mother and son get ripped apart by walkers. And then he watched as the boy he loved as a brother collapse with a gunshot to the eye. He's scared. But he hasn't given up yet.

This is not their end.

Cole Tanner doesn't let up. He's come to far to give up now. He kills and he kills and he kills these walkers. His arms are covered in blood, his shirt, his hands, his face. He can't help the uncontrollable laughter that bubbles in his chest. Nothing can stop him now. He's on top of the world.

This is not their end.

Kathleen Cooper stabs her knife into the brains of the dead. The knife that killed a teenage boy. She doesn't have time to think about that. It's time to save Alexandria because Deanna believed in this place. She believed in Kathleen.

This is not their end.

Odessa Grimes screams angrily as she stabs both of her blades into the bottoms of two walkers chins. She yanks her knives out. She's no longer fighting for herself. This— everything is for Carl.

This is not their end.

After fighting for hours, the sun has risen. The streets are littered with dead walkers. Everyone is  trying to get their breath back or is hugging the person closest to them.

Odessa and Rick don't take any time. They don't check on anyone. They both race to the infirmary.

Odessa stumbles over a walker corpse. But she regains her balance. She and her father get the infirmary at the same time.

Denise looks at them. "Is he alive?" Rick asks. She nods.

"He's in the back room." Denise tells them.

When they get back there, Carl is unconscious. He has a bandage wrapped around his eye. Odessa collapses in a chair beside his bed. Rick does the same.

The others are gathered outside the infirmary and inside of it. Daryl is getting stitched up from where he had been stabbed.

Glenn and Maggie stand together.

Abraham and Sasha are on the porch.

Everyone returned. Everyone expect Nicholas, David, Sturgess, Annie, and more. But their loses have only fueled the Alexandrians more.

Cole is sitting on the porch, his back pressed against the wall. He's covered in sweat and blood. He's exhausted. But his exhaustion is worth it. They did the impossible.

Theo Blake sits in the grass. His eyes staring at the ground in front of him. His hands are bloody. His eyes are blurry from either exhaustion or tears. He doesn't know which one.

All he can see is Kathleen's blade piercing Ron's throat every time he blinks. Every time he closes his eyes he can hear the way the blade and flesh met.

Inside, the Grimes sit in silence for several minutes. Until Rick speaks up. "I was wrong." Odessa glances at him. "I thought after living behind these walls for so long that... maybe they couldn't learn. But today... I saw what they could do, what we could do, if we work together. We'll rebuild the wall. We'll expand the wall. There will be more. There's gotta be more. Everything Deanna was talking about... is possible. It's all possible. I see it now. When I was out there... with them... when it was over... when I knew we had this place again... I had this feeling. It too me a while to remember what it was because I haven't felt it since before I woke up at that hospital. I want to show you the new world, Carl."

Rick looks at his daughter. Tears spill over. She wipes them away. He looks back at his son. "I want to show both of you the new world. I want to make it a reality for you and your sisters. Please, Carl. Let me show you. Plea— please. Don't die, son."

Odessa buries her head in her hands. She hasn't cried this much since— since Beth.

Rick leaves Odessa and Carl alone. He knows she needs a moment with her baby brother.

She takes his limp hand in her own trembling hand. "Carl," she sobs. "My baby brother. I'm sorry— I'm sorry I wasn't there. I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you."

More tears spill over. She's so ate up with guilt she can't breathe.

"Maybe if I was there I could've stopped it. I could've stopped Ron in time, disarmed him maybe." She gasps backs a cry. "Carl, I can't do this without you. I need you. I need you to stay alive. Please, Carl."

"Dad is— Dad is right. Let him show us the new world, Carl. We need you here to see how we can change the world. You can change the world. You already have. You changed my world the day you were born so now I need you to stay alive. I need you to keep fighting."

And suddenly, she feels pressure on her hand. She looks down and Carl's fingers have curled around her hand. She gasps quietly. Carl is alive and he's coherent. He heard her. He's alive.

She smiles. She smiles so big. Then she laughs. She laughs because her baby brother will live. Because this is not their end.

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word count: 2,701

shut the fuck up this is my second favorite chapter in this whole book. i love it so much. it's so powerful. ugh, the sheer EMOTION i put into this chapter. i cry every time i read it.

so as we know a lot happened in this chapter. let's start with the biggest thing: carl being shot. odessa's reaction to it absolutely CRUSHED me. then she went full rage mode (which is very scary). and the end :((. she loves her brother more than anything in the whole world (except judith ofc).

and she also told the guys about her "condition". odessa is like a living walker. the bite is slowly killing her and like she said it will take years to finally turn her. and she will "probably" be dead by then. who knows 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️!!!! would i kill the main character of this series?? absolutely.

also carl threatening gabriel with the mere mention of odessa. he didn't even have to say her name. but he was totally right.

kathleen :(. poor woman has been through the fucking works in the last two chapters. first deanna and then killing a teenager. that was a violent death.

i love the fight scene. especially where it jumps between all four of them, i feel like their individual little fight scenes described each of them very well.

cole: totally manic in a horrible situation. was so pumped with adrenaline he couldn't stop himself from laughing.

theo: thought about ron's murder. scared but never ever gave up. didn't even consider it.

kathleen: kept true to her words. was not going to let alexandria fall to the dead after deanna said she was the very future of the community.

odessa: angry. screamed. fought for her brother.

rip jessie.
rip ron.
rip sam.