Rosie's heart was pounding, along with the pain in her head. She had the homemade lock pick hidden in her pocket. She had already stuffed her things inside of her backpack- aside from the pillow and blanket because those wouldn't fit. She'd just have to leave those behind. She had been waiting and waiting for the small sliver of sunlight from beneath the door and the quiet, occasional footsteps that sounded from the hall to disappear, signifying nightfall. 

Laura had come in once more to empty the bucket and escort Rosie to the bathroom, and Rosie felt like she was going to have a heart attack the entire time. She was doing her best to act natural, like she wasn't going to get out of this hell hole within the next few hours. But she was shaky, without meaning to be. Laura brushed it off as her being weak from throwing up so much. Really, it was the anxiety.

If Rosie screwed this up, she'd be stuck for even longer, and Eugene would be inevitably punished. Rosie really, really did not want that to happen. That was the worst-case scenario. She decided that if she did get caught, she would say that she found it in her backpack. Daryl must've snuck it in, right? Daryl couldn't get punished for it if he wasn't there. Therefore, everyone was safe. But none of that would have to happen at all if Rosie could just get this right. 

The sun had been down for what Rosie would guess was two hours by now. The hallways had been silent for what Rosie counted to be 1,743 seconds. She decided that she was going to wait 500 more seconds until she would start trying to pick the lock. Tick-tick-click. Easy peasy. Tick-tick-click. That was all she had to do. Tick-tick-click, then just getting the rest of the way out. 

496, 497, 498, 499, 500. Rosie felt like she couldn't breathe. She lifted her shaky hand from her pocket, the bent-up paperclip held so tight between her fingers that it left indents in her pale skin. She stuck the paperclip into the keyhole on the doorknob. She shook it around in there a little, trying to get the placement right. Then, tick. Her heart practically stopped beating. She moved it a little more. Another tick. More, but nothing. 

Come on. 

She pulled the paperclip back out of the keyhole, then, slowly, she put it back in, starting over. Tick-tick-nothing. 

Please. Please. Please.

One more time, she started over. Come on, please. She stuck it in. Tick, further, tick, further, click. Her breath hitched, and she forgot to breathe for a moment as she let her hand go to the doorknob. She twisted. The doorknob didn't stop. It turned with her hand. She let go, stepping back. She had done it. Out of all people, it was Eugene who managed to get her out. As long as she was able to escape the building, that is. 

After a deep breath, Rosie slung her backpack over her shoulders. She needed to be silent. She pressed her ear up to the door, listening for any footsteps- any sign of someone out in the halls. She waited and waited. Nothing. Slowly, she twisted the handle again, and gently pushed open the door. She only opened it enough for her to peak out, at first, but once she saw that it was for sure clear, she slipped out into the hallway, silently pushing the door shut behind her. 

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe, she kept reminding herself. 

The hall was dark, aside from the tiny rays of moonlight slipping in from the small windows. Be quick, be quiet. Now the outcome was completely up to Rosie. No one was there to give her directions, to protect her, to help her. She was on her own. Her fate was up to herself and only herself. She reached the end of the hall and pressed herself up against the wall. Just to be safe, she peaked out around the corner, making sure no one was down there, either. No one was in this new hallway, but a new light was. A glowing red light. It was coming from a sign that hung from the ceiling that read, EXIT. 

That was it. 

Rosie quickened her pace, nearly running towards the exit sign. She was only a few steps away when she heard voices from around the corner. Almost instantaneously, Rosie slammed herself up against the wall, her hand pressed over her mouth. A man's voice. No, two men's voices. 

"Aye," one of the men greeted the other. This one had a young-ish sounding voice. He also sounded tired- groggy. "Where you goin'?" he asked the other man.

"Out for a smoke," the other man replied. His voice was low and scratchy, like he'd been smoking those cigarettes for a hundred years. 

"Care to share?" the younger man asked. There was a grunt, as if saying, I guess, then the older voice got a bit further away from Rosie- closer to the younger voice. Then a quiet flick. Then another flick, and another. 

"Ah, fuck," the older voice cursed. 

"I might have a lighter somewhere," the younger voice said. The older voice grunted again, then two pairs of footsteps walked a few steps further away until they were gone. Rosie peaked around the corner, her heart slamming against her ribs. They were gone. Thank God, they were gone. Now, though- now she had to hurry. She didn't know how long it would take for them to find a lighter and go outside for a smoke.

So, Rosie went straight to the door below the exit sign. She pulled it open. It was unnecessarily heavy, but Rosie managed to get it open. She pulled it closed behind her, then stood in the stairwell for a moment, listening for any more voices. There were none, so she ran down the stairs. When she got to the bottom, and she got to the final door, she was sure that there had to be some sort of trick. Maybe- maybe Negan knew. Maybe he made Eugene give her the paperclip. Maybe this was a test. Maybe Negan was going to be waiting on the other side of this door, and maybe he'd grab her by the arm and drag her back to that miserable cell. 

But maybe, it wasn't a trick. Maybe it was real. And there was no point in going back now. She'd already gotten this far- it'd be stupid to go back. So, with her heart in her stomach, Rosie opened up the last door. She froze in her spot when she heard two voices. A man's voice, annoyed, saying Man, I don't care. Will you shut up? And another man's voice. Eugene's voice, saying things- big words, big ideas- that Rosie didn't understand. Rosie locked eyes with Eugene, and he gave a barely noticeable nod before breaking eye contact. 

This was it. This was it. 

Rosie, silently, but quickly, snuck past the man- the Savior who was on guard shift. He had his back turned. Eugene was irritating him, distracting him. He pushed on Eugene's shoulder, telling him to shut up and leave- Rosie couldn't hear him anymore. She reached the dirt road and veered off into the woods. She'd done it. She'd done it. Now all she had to do was run. So, she ran, and she ran, and she ran. 

Running, running, running. Constant, lung-shattering running until Rosie felt that she was far enough away to stop and figure out where to go. There were now holes in her jeans and scrapes on her knees from the pesky sticks and logs that dared to get in her way. Rosie didn't know how to get back to Alexandria from here, but going back there- that would be too obvious. The Hilltop. She could go to the Hilltop. Where was that? In the RV, Eugene and Sasha were looking at the maps, when they were bringing Maggie- oh, Maggie- to the Hilltop. 

"Barton Road takes us north, but they gotta know we wanna go north," Sasha said, leaning over the map next to Eugene.

North. The Hilltop was north. Where was North? I need the sunrise, Rosie thought to herself, growling in frustration. She looked up at the sky, wondering how long it would be until the sun rose in the east. She looked up at the stars, thinking about the dead. There was the Big Dipper. And across from the tip of the spoon was the North Star. Of course! The North Star. Idiot, why didn't you think of that?

So, Rosie walked. She walked through the night, not too slow, but not too fast, because she was tired and she felt sick and her knees hurt. After all the running, yes, she had puked- because that was all her stomach wanted to do anymore, apparently. She was going to the Hilltop, and she was going to find Jesus, and Jesus would help her find Rick. Rick would help her. Rick would know what to do. He always knew what to do. He'd know where Daryl was hiding. He'd know it all, because he was a leader, and he was smart.

When the sun rose in the morning, Rosie made sure to keep the sun on her right shoulder. North, yes north is in front, and east is to the right. Never eat soggy waffles. North, east, south, west, Rosie reminded herself, remembering what she'd learned from her father. On she marched, through the woods. She'd run into a few walkers, but she didn't have any weapons. She managed to kill one with a stick- she poked the stick into its eye- but for most of the walkers, she'd just start running again until she was sure the walker wasn't following anymore. She was lucky not to have run into a herd or anything. This was her lucky, lucky day. 

North, was where she was going, but she was worried that she wouldn't run into the Hilltop. What if she'd already passed it? Maybe it was a little northeast or a little northwest. Maybe she was just going to be lost forever and ever and ever and- Is that a Ferris wheel?

Weird, Rosie thought to herself. There must've been a fair going on here before the outbreak. Rosie had never been to a fair before, but she'd seen them in movies before. She could hear walkers snarling and growling from inside the gates, but she wasn't planning on going in. She just wanted to see it. It wasn't like any of the rides would work, anyway. She'd just never seen one in real life before. Rosie stepped out of the woods, into the clearing that the fair had found its home in. She looked up to the tippy top of the Ferris wheel. She always wanted to go on one of those. She wanted to be able to see over the trees and rooftops, above everything else in the whole town. She'd be on top of the world.

Rosie stepped closer to the chain-linked fence that separated her from the walkers. She slipped her fingers through one of the holes, holding onto the fence to help support her weight. Her legs felt like jelly after all the running and walking she'd done. She let her eyes wander around to the different carnival games and rides. There was a stand for cotton candy. She had cotton candy once at one of her baseball games. Coach Smith had bought it for her from one of the concession stands. It was the best thing she'd ever eaten. But now she didn't want to think about that, because it was Negan who had bought it for her. So, she let her eyes wander back to the Ferris wheel.

One of the walkers was climbing the Ferris wheel. Walkers don't climb, stupid. Rosie squinted her eyes, looking at the figure that was scaling the Ferris wheel. It was a man. He had on a blue button-down shirt and black jeans. His hair was brown and curly, and he was Rick. Rick Grimes was on the Ferris wheel.

"Rick!" Rosie shouted loudly, her heart in her throat. She jumped up and down, waving her arm around wildly, trying to get Rick's attention. She felt like she was going to cry, not because she was sad, but because she was so damn happy. That didn't even make sense. "Rick! Rick!" Rosie shouted again. 

Rick's eyes finally found Rosie behind the fence. His eyes widened, and a smile found its way onto his face. He waved to her, and she waved back, the biggest smile she has ever had spread across her face. That was when a beam broke, and Rick went tumbling down, off of the Ferris wheel.

Now it was Rosie's turn to widen her eyes. "Rick!" she screamed out of fear rather than joy this time. Someone else screamed it, too, but Rosie couldn't see them. She was pretty sure it was Michonne, but she wasn't positive. Rosie started to climb the fence as walkers started stumbling their way towards Rick, who was laying in the grass. He sat up and started firing off shots at the walkers, but there were too many. Rosie ran closer, picking up a metal rod off of the ground on her way over.

By the time Rosie got there, Michonne was already there, her sword in her hand. She was frozen in her spot, staring down at the group of walkers, which were tearing something about below them. They were tearing Rick apart. Rosie dropped the metal rod and her hands went to her hair, and she was pulling, pulling, pulling, because Rick was dead. He was dead and it was her fault. She distracted him. She distracted him, and he fell, and now he was dead. 

"No, no, no, no, no," Rosie kept whispering to herself, tears burning at her eyes. Michonne's sword dropped to the ground, and the walkers started approaching. Rosie didn't want Michonne to die, too, so she picked up the metal rod again and stabbed it into the head of one of the walkers. Rosie and Michonne backed away, and the walkers followed, revealing a dead... deer behind them. It was a deer. It was a deer!

Rick appeared from behind some tipped-over booth, and he slammed into the first walker that got to him, knocking it to the ground. He picked up Michonne's sword and used it to stab one of the walkers in the head before tossing it into the air. "Michonne!" he called out, and Michonne caught the handle when it got to her, immediately resuming her fighting. 

Together, with an axe, a sword, and a metal rod, the three of them fought the small herd of walkers, stabbing their weapons through the brains and killing the already dead. Once the dead were all dead, Rick dropped to his knees in front of Rosie, catching his breath as he hugged her. He put a hand on the back of her head, holding her close to him, while his other arm reached out and pulled Michonne into the hug. 

"You're ok. You're ok," Rick breathed out, reassuring himself more than he was reassuring Rosie. They all pulled away from the hug, relieved smiles on their faces. Rick put his hands on Rosie's shoulders, and Rosie felt like she was going to cry, but she wouldn't let herself. "Rosie, Maggie's ok. Her baby's ok. She's at the Hilltop with Ian, Enid, and Sasha," Rick told her.

Rosie's eyes widened and the lump in her throat grew. "She's not dead?" she squeaked out, still trying not to let herself cry. It didn't make sense to cry. She was happy. Why would she cry? She was safe, and she was with Rick, and she was with Michonne. What reason did she have to cry?

"No, she's not dead," Michonne answered, her smile wide as she pushed Rosie's mess of hair out of her eyes. Rosie's smile grew wider, too, and her hands went to her face, wiping her eyes as Rick ruffled her hair a little. "You're not hurt, are you?" Michonne asked. 

"Well," Rosie began by pointing down at her knees. "I scraped my knees and I keep throwin' up, but other than that I ain't hurt at all." 

"Alright, once we get these guns to the Scavengers, we get take you back to the Hilltop and get you all cleaned up. Ok?" Rick said, standing back up to his full height. Rosie's eyebrows furrowed, confused. 

"The Scavengers?" she asked, a questioning tone to her voice.

"Trash people," Michonne said, only confusing Rosie more. "You'll see when we get there. You wanna help us gather these guns?"

"Yeah," Rosie answered, nodding her head with her smile still spread across her face. As fast as she could, Rosie helped Rick and Michonne gather all of the guns in the yard, eager to get to the Hilltop and see Maggie. She stuck one of the guns in her waistband, so that she'd have a weapon to use. They gathered all of the guns in the back of a van that Rick and Michonne had been driving. When they began driving, Rosie sat on the floor in the small space that was left between boxes of food and guns, and Rick explained all that had been going on since she was gone.

Apparently, Rick and Michonne had been out searching for guns. They needed a lot of guns because they were going to fight the Saviors. They'd met two new communities of people, and Rick was trying to convince them to help fight the Saviors. One of the communities was called the Kingdom, which was where Rick said Daryl was supposed to be staying for now. Rick also said that the Kingdom had a tiger. A real, living tiger. Rosie wanted to meet the tiger badly, and Rick said she might be able to come with next time they go to the Kingdom so she could meet it. The other community was called the Scavengers- or the Trash People, as Michonne called them. They lived in a dump. An actual garbage dump. Rick said that they were a little weird and Michonne added that they were really weird, not just a little weird. The Scavengers were who they were getting the guns for. They would agree to fight if they were given guns. That was the deal.

Rosie was excited to meet the tiger, and she was excited to see what was so weird about the Scavengers, but for now, she was just tired. She was tired and she was safe, so she could finally, finally sleep ok again. While Rick and Michonne had quiet conversations in the front of the van, they let Rosie sleep in the back, using her backpack as a pillow. She was safe. She was back with her family. She was home.