HEART OF GLASS
CHAPTER NINE !

[ season two, episode two ]

Blood seeped between her fingers, cracking along her skin like thick, crimson vines. She pressed a hand against the gaping wound splashed along her abdomen, refraining from releasing a gasp of shuddering pain. The blanket wrapped around her shoulders did little to help. The fever had already struck. Her cheeks were pale, lips cracked, grey eyes droopy — an accurate depiction of a woman lounging across her death bed.

Monica Whitman shakily reached a hand up to her daughter's face. She pushed a lock of ash-blonde hair behind the young girl's ear.

"You have to protect her." she said, smiling softly despite the seriousness in her last, dying request.

Marley only nodded.

She knew her mother was referring to Sage, her vulnerable younger sister. Her safety was the woman's priority. When the fever ran it's course, she wouldn't be there to care for Sage like she had promised. That responsibility laid with Marley now.

"Promise me you'll protect her?" Monica pressed weakly.

Marley blinked back the tears shimmering in her eyes. In her mother's last moments, she wanted to be strong. She wanted to prove her unwavering confidence and strength, to ensure Monica would pass peacefully with the knowledge her daughters were going to be safe in the eldest's hands.

Monica almost choked on her own rasping breath as she whispered, "Keep her safe, my Marley."

Those words were doomed to forever haunt the girl with a heart of glass.

Tears welled in her eyes. Her mother's hand slid down to her collarbone, her strength ebbing away. Sage's gut-wrenching sobs grew louder from the opposing room. The lifeless body of the walker that tore a chunk from Monica's flesh was slumped against the wall, staring at nothing in particular, but punctured Marley's soul nevertheless.

"I will," Marley muttered. "Promise."

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The highway was right ahead, almost entirely concealed by the evergreen trees lining the edge of the forest. The group dashed up the slope with bated breath.

Carl's life was on the line.

Lori had left with a strange woman on a horse.

Carol was a grieving mother.

Sophia was missing.

And Marley was haunted by the ghosts of her past.

Everything was beginning to crumble. Like a domino effect, one catastrophic event had fallen upon the world and led to the outbreak of another — from the downfall of their Atlanta camp, to Amy, Jim and Jacqui's death, to Sophia becoming a lost little girl in the woods, and now Carl's unfathomable injury. One singular piece had fallen into another, and the rest were swift to follow.

Just one. One event was all it took to plunge the survivors into a world of complete darkness.

They raced up the hill with nothing on their minds but Carl and Sophia and the untimely death they assumed was going to swiftly follow — again, like a domino effect. They could only hope it wouldn't.

"Dale!" Glenn yelled hoarsely.

The man clad in a tarnished bucket-hat stepped down from the roof of the RV, the ageing wrinkles slicing through his forehead and curling around his eyes deepening with the concerned frown overtaking his once-impassive expression.

Glenn heaved a breath and shouted, "Carl got shot!"

Dale's confused expression faded. The colour drained from his face until the old man was deathly pale — like a slither of dewy moonlight was shone upon his cheeks. His mouth fell agape, a shotgun perched on his shoulder.

"What? What do you mean shot?" the man asked sharply.

He looked at Marley expectantly with bulging eyes. The girl quickly shrugged and ran a trembling hand over her forehead. "I don't know. We weren't told how or why —"

"We weren't there." Glenn interjected, noticing the laboured breaths coming from a panic-stricken Marley. "All we know is this chick rode out of nowhere like Zorro on a horse and took Lori."

Dale's eyes shifted to Daryl. "You let her?"

"Climb down out of my asshole, man," Daryl grumbled, clambering over the railing between the highway and the forest. "Rick sent her. She knew Lori's name and Carl's."

The redneck walked past Dale, falling into the stream of rusting cars. Everyone else followed along behind him, only Glenn and Marley staying put beside Dale, the incredibly confused elder.

Sage was the last to hop over the low, metal beam. With her face buried into her clammy palms, she ran toward the idle RV and disappeared inside after Andrea. It was all too much for her — the only friends she had left in this world were both skimming over death. She had barely recovered from the tragic events that unfolded in Atlanta city — the doomed fate her parents simultaneously met. And now this . . . more of the same.

Would it ever end?

"When should we leave?" Marley asked breathlessly. Her hand was splayed over her chest, acting as a shield to the place her thumping heart resided. "She gave us directions to her place. That's where Carl will be, right?"

Dale and Glenn nodded in unanimous agreement. They had the best interests of the group at heart, thinking of a place that they could stay — a safe place — that wasn't open to the detrimental elements or a platter for another herd of walkers to eat from. This was the best option they had for a while . . . and Carl needed people other than his parents to be there for him as he healed.

Glenn jutted his finger toward the remainder of the group standing by the RV. "The others need to know that we plan on leaving — together."

Squinting through the sun's rays, Marley nodded and voiced her agreement. "I know."

They spent the next five minutes explaining the dire situation to Dale; no sign of Sophia and the bullet that supposedly pierced Carl's skin. Then, they spent another ten trying — and majestically failing — to persuade Carol that leaving the highway behind was the only choice they had.

The mother shook her head for the fourth time, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "I won't do it. We can't just leave."

"Carol, the group is split." Dale inferred. "We're scattered and weak."

"What if she comes back and we're not here? It could happen." the mother said weakly. She took two steps back, and then another step forward — growing increasingly anxious the more she spoke of her missing daughter.

Andrea nodded in sympathetic agreement. "If Sophia found her way back and we were gone, that would be awful."

Concerned by the group's indecisiveness, Marley gnawed on her thumb-nail and leaned against the RV. She could understand Carol's point — leaving the highway with the knowledge Sophia could return just to wind up alone again . . . it wasn't the greatest option. But Marley had to get Sage to safety. Her main priority was Sage.

She wasn't willing to stay somewhere they were not safe.

"Okay." Daryl mumbled, nodding his head. "We got to plan for this. I say tomorrow morning is soon enough to pull up stakes. Give us a chance to rig a big sign, leave her some supplies. I'll hold here tonight, stay with the RV."

Dale scoffed lowly to show he was not completely supportive of Daryl's suggestion. "If the RV is staying, I am too."

There was a moment's silence. Then, Andrea lifted her hand.

"I'm in."

Glenn glanced between the survivors. "Well, if you're all staying then I'm—"

"Not you, Glenn." Dale interrupted sternly, shaking his head. "You're going. So are Marley and Sage."

"We are?" Marley asked. She crossed her arms over her chest and sighed knowingly. "I don't know how Sage will feel about leaving."

Dale lifted his shoulders and spread his arms out either side of his body like an eagle taking flight. "She'll have to cope. It's the safest option."

The girl nodded in agreement. Andrea placed a hand on her shoulder and pressed a warm smile to her lips.

"You have to find this farm, reconnect with our people and see what's going on." Dale ordered, using his hand to gesticulate the importance of fulfilling these duties. "Most importantly, you have to get T-Dog there. This is not an option. That cut has gone from bad to worse — he has a very serious blood infection."

Unfolding her arms, Marley leaned forward to take a closer look at T-Dog. He was sitting on the bonnet of the RV with a blanket wrapped around his trembling upper-body, unable to feel the scorching heat expelled from the sun as an infection raged through his bloodstream.

"Get him to that farm, see if they have any antibiotics. Because if not, T-Dog will die, no joke."

It was fair to say they understood the seriousness in Dale's words.

There was a sudden clatter behind them. Marley peered over her shoulder to see Daryl dropping a plastic ziplock bag onto the bonnet of a car. There were many orange bottles inside, each tube containing various different medications.

Daryl reached his hand inside and began pulling the contents out onto the bonnet.

"Crystal X. Don't need that." he murmured, pushing it aside. "Got some kick ass painkillers. Oxycycline."

He tossed the rattling bottles to Dale. The old man grinned in relief.

"Not the generic stuff neither. It's first class. Merle got the clap on occasion."

Marley grimaced and exchanged a slightly nauseated look with Carol. Merle Dixon's lack of current existence was more beneficial to the group than anything, but they would never admit that to the intimidating brother he left behind. Not unless they wanted to face his wrath.

A few minutes after the group confirmed their agreement to the upcoming plans, Marley slipped inside the RV and searched for Sage.

She was in the back. The duvet was pulled up to her cheeks, unraveled corkscrew curls splayed out over the top of the blanket. Marley settled herself on the edge of the bed. There was no movement from Sage. Sighing, Marley reached a hand out and placed it where she assumed her sister's arm would be.

Sage's eyes opened. She looked from the wall to Marley's face.

"Are you okay?" the eldest Whitman signed softly.

Sage shook her head. Two hands slithered out from beneath the blanket. "No."

Marley's placid expression crumbled. A look of the deepest concern passed over her features like a flicker of light, but she was determined not to let it bleed through.

She had never seen Sage this way before. So . . . defeated. It was worrying.

"Are you worried about Carl?"

Sage nodded. Her hands clashed together as she said, "And Sophia."

Then came the tears. Sage buried her head further into the embroidered cushion that once belonged to Dale's wife as Marley reached forward and tucked a lock of golden hair behind the girl's ear.

They remained like that for a while — content in the one another's comfort.

Minutes passed before Sage lifted her head away from the pillow. She wiped the tears from her pink cheeks, and a frown dominated her brow. She lifted her hands.

"What if I'm next?"

It wasn't a question. It was a statement.

Marley's blood ran cold. Her limbs fell stiff — leaden. Oxygen escaped her lungs, and it was suddenly very hard to breathe.

Sage barely noticed before letting her head drop back down to the pillow, cutting herself away from dreaded reality by squeezing her eyes closed and refusing to look at the metaphorical horror surrounding them.

She was right, even if she did not utter the words. The children of the group were dropping like flies. Soon — one way or another — they would be dead.

What if she was next?

⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

this chapter is really short and terrible
because i rushed it out, im so sorry.

anyways, merry crimbo!
it's christmas eve rn who's
excited for santa?