TWENTY THREE. PLAY WITH FIRE AND
YOU HER BURNED

      There's an image of a child, a girl with long dark hair, climbing to the top of a tree. She's no older than ten years old, and her hair is in messy pigtails with strands flying around her face from the wind. The tree almost reaches the clouds, it's so tall. She wonders how long it'll take her to get to the top. Her little hands wrap around the branches and she prays that she won't fall, for she's so little that the impact would sure be terrible. Life is so beautiful, she thinks, because she's so young and carefree. She sees the world in screaming colors, not thinking about the black and white. The child reaches the top of the tree, hitting the peak at seven feet, and she overlooks the view of the sky. She wishes that time can stand still so she could look at the view forever. Her only fear was falling.

Mia reflected back on the times where she would run around her house with her brother and sister and not care about getting in trouble. Her girlhood was fresh, she was innocent and graceful. If Mia could go back, she would tell her ten year old self that it was okay to be afraid, because she would much rather be afraid of taking from a tree than being afraid dying at any moment.

There is no more girlhood but a girl with bloodstained hands and bruised knees, kneeling at the alter with her hands clasped together, begging for forgiveness. A girl with an open mouth, hungry to be loved. A girl with the heart of an unhallowed sanctuary. A girl with sliced collarbones, pulling stitches from her wrists, wanting to be clean of the sins she had no choice but to act upon. A girl with a sparrow in her teeth, unforgiven for these sins (unforgiven for her skin). Have mercy on her soul God, but even Jesus Christ can't save her.

The darkness in the train car put her on edge. Rick instructed a plan to make weapons for their escape, to which everyone silently agreed on. Mia couldn't stop looking at the new comers, a million questions in her head. Where did they come from? What were they doing? What is their story? She was a curious girl, but curiosity killed the cat. The chatter between the adults was brief as they tried to collect information from everyone, and Mia stayed quiet.

She had taken off a good chunk of wood from the wooden siding and she used the knife she had to shave off the wood into a stake. She sliced away at the top until it shaped into a point edge. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough. She glanced at Carl and saw him sharpening his belt. His cheek was stained red and scraped from the events that took place not too long ago. She swallowed again painfully, suddenly remembering the bruises that still sat on her neck.

She heard the faint noise of voices coming from outside the train car. Daryl peaked through the open slits. "All right, we got four of them pricks coming our way." He voiced.

Determination settled inside their leader. "Alright, y'all know what to do," Rick spoke and everyone stood up from where they were sitting. "Go for their eyes first. Then their throats."

Mia stood close to Carl with her spear raised, the sharp end being visible in the very limited light.

"Put your backs to the walls on either end of the car now." A man ordered from outside.

Their plan deteriorated when the roof of the train car opened a smoke bomb came falling. It hit the ground and realization dawned on them. "Move!" Abraham shout.

Carl grabbed her hand and pulled her back, her back colliding with his chest and their eyes were clouded by smoke. They had fallen to the ground the last thing Mia remembered was clutching onto the fabric of Carl's flannel.

Carl was scared. Mia's eyes followed him as he paced around the train car. Rick, Daryl, Glenn, and Bob were gone. They had been taken in the smoke. They were all on edge. His hands shook violently and occasionally folded into fists like he wanted to hit something. "Hey, it's okay." Mia quietly spoke.

Carl stopped pacing and looked at her. "No, it's not okay, Mia. What if something bad happened to them? To him?" He panicked.

"Your dad is smart, Carl. You think he would go down without a fight? Hell no." She took one of his shaky hands. "Worrying yourself to death is only going to make this harder."

She spoke the words, but her mind was the complete opposite. Mia was terrified. The strongest of their group was gone and they had no way of knowing if they were okay or not. She was never really a girl of faith but she had faith in Rick Grimes.

"Could you, uh. . . could you maybe say something to distract me?" He asked her, trying to keep his panic at bay. "I don't care what it is."

Mia blinked a few times, her mind running blank. "Okay. Um. . . uh, if you could have any accent in the world, what accent would you choose?"

A small chuckle escaped from him and he shook his head. "What?"

"You asked me!"

"Okay," the boy laughed again, not expecting the question. He stared at the wall in front of him in thought, and then quietly chuckled. "Uh, Scottish."

Mia accidentally snorted.

"What?"

"I just. . ." she started to say through a laugh. "I didn't expect that. I thought you would say British."

Carl scoffed. "That's a basic answer."

"It is not." She gasped sarcastically. "I happen to like the British accent."

He snorted that time as she spoke in a British accent.  "Oh gosh, don't ever do that again."

Mia's jaw dropped and she hit him on the shoulder, making him laugh again, and the tension in his shoulders slowly lifted. Maggie watched the pair from where she was standing and she smiled to herself, looking away.

Suddenly, a loud boom went off and the train car shook, causing Mia to stumble into him and everyone hit against the sides of the car. "What in the shit and shinola was that?" Abraham loud voice raised and looked all around him.

"Was that a bomb?" Mia questioned, not believing what just happened.

Every bad scenario went through their heads and Abraham banged his fists against the train car. "What in the hell is going on?"

"Someone hit them." Michonne said, her voice shaking with worry.

"Maybe our people's got free." Sasha hoped.

Eugene squeezed between her and Tara. "Excuse me."  He bent down and started messing with the bottom of the door.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"I might be able to use this shell to compromise the door. From the sound of things, there may not be anybody left to open it."

"Eugene, I'm sorry, but shut up." Said Tara.

"Okay."

"Hey," Carl spoke up and let go of Mia's hand. He looked at all of the adults. "My dad's gonna be back. They all are."

"They are." Maggie nodded, keeping the faith. "And we need to get ready to fight our way out with them when they do."

They looked at each other, knowing she was right. Mia watched as she checked her father's pocket watch and bent down to the wooden siding. She used the metal of the watch and tried to sad through the wood. Mia smiled. "Smart woman."

Maggie smiled back.

Mia counted the seconds that rolled by over twenty times. She somehow always messed up when she got to 50. The time that went by made the nerves in the train car grow higher as Rick and the others still hadn't made it back yet. She held on to her faith as tight as she could, but the snarling of the walkers and the screams of the people as they tore into their flesh was beginning to make her doubt everything.

She took the shoelaces from her boots and used them to tie her knife to the other end of the stake that she had. She made sure to sharpen the tip even more, now having both sides sharp. One for the front, and one for over the shoulder.

"What's the cure, Eugene?" Sasha asked, and Mia looked over her shoulder.

"It's classified." He answered without sparring her a glance.

Michonne looked at him as she was right beside him. "We don't know what's gonna happen."

"You leave him be," Abraham chimed.

"We need to keep working." Maggie announced as she walked by.

"Yeah, but it's time to hear it. Cause we don't know what's coming next."

"What's next is we get out of this."

"Even if I told you all, even if I provided step-by-step instructions complete with illustrations and a well-composed FAQ and I went red-ring, the cure would still die with me." Eugene explained to them.

Mia narrowed her eyes and looked at the boy she was sitting beside. "Did you understand any of that?"

Carl shook his head. "Not a clue."

"I'm not gonna let that happen." The red haired man declared.

"The best case scenario, we step out into a hellstorm of bullets, fire, and walkers. I'm not fleet of foot. I sure as hell can't take a dead one down with sharp buttons and hella confidence."

"Yeah, but we can and we will." Michonne replied with all the confidence she had.

Sasha stood up from her stop and looked down on him. "You don't owe us anything. Not yet. But we just want to hear it."

"You don't have to." Rosita spoke, defending her friend.

Mia had started to take a liking to the woman. She was head strong, much like Maggie was, and Tara — though soft spoken, was confident enough to keep her eye on the prize and the prize was them getting out alive.

Eleven stared at the woman silently, contemplating the decision. He closed his eyes briefly and stood up. "I was part of a 10-person team at the Human Genome Project to weaponize diseases to fight weaponized diseases."

Mia sat the stake down and listened to him.

"Pathogenic microorganisms with pathogenic microorganisms. Fire with fire. Interdepartmental drinks were had, relationships made, information shared. I am keenly aware of all the details behind fail-system delivery systems to kill every living person on this planet. I believe with a little tweaking on the terminals in DC, we can flip the script. Take our every last dead one of them. Fire with fire."

It was silent. Abraham wore a proud grin.

"All things being equal, it does sound pretty badass."

"So let's get back to work." Maggie proclaimed once again.

Though his story was composed, Mia was still confused. He said a whole lot without saying a whole lot, and she wondered why he was so keen on keeping it a secret.

There was a banging on the train car and Carl stood up swiftly. She followed behind him. The door slid open to reveal Rick. "Come on! Fight to the fence!" He immediately yelled.

The scene in front of her was horrific, a complete war zone. Smoke floated in the air and walkers crawled everywhere, their snarled haunting. Mia gripped the stake she had and took out her gun. She ran out of the train car.

She stabbed and slashed through every walker that came her way. It was so sudden and so fast that she barely had time to breathe. Blood and guts were everywhere, the smell of burning flesh lingering in the air, and her eyes spotted a walker behind Abraham — his back was turned as he ran. Mia quickly ran and slashed her stake through its head. She watched as the creature fell dead to the ground.

Abraham spun around and looked between her and the walker. He nodded. "Appreciate that, little lady."

She nodded quickly and they went on with the killing. Crimson clover stained her eyes, her skin burning hot. She was a child stuck in war, the screaming colors blurring black and white.

"Mia!" Glenn shouted from afar, gaining her attention.

She quickly ran in his direction and he grabbed her arm, pulling her along with him and shooting the walkers around them. They directed to the fence where everybody was.

"Up and over!"

"Let's go! Move!"

"Come on!"

One by one, they quickly jumped over the fence. Glenn took Mia's hands and helped her climb over. Her heart pounded against her dry throat, her hands hurting from the cracks and cuts in her palms. They walked silently through the woods.

Carl glanced at her and saw the splattered blood on her face and clothes. He hesitantly reached his hand up and brushed his fingers against her bloody cheek, wiping the red away. It startled her and she looked his way. He was too embarrassed to say anything so instead he raised his hand, showing her the blood.

She blinked and slowly smiled, looking ahead again.

"The hell we still around here for?" Abraham's blaring voice announced.

"Guns, some supplies." Rick answered and stared digging through the dirt for the nag of guns that he had buried. "Go along the fences. Use the rifles. Take out the rest of em."

"What?" Said Bob.

He paused what he was doing and looked back at him. "They don't get to live."

"Rick, we got out. It's over."

"It's not over till they're all dead."

Mia shared a look with Carl, both of them filled with unease. The way he was acting, the way he talked, was a different man. At least the man she had grown to know. It was like a switch flipped. They had gotten out alive. Going back was a death wish.

"The hell it isn't. That place is on fire.Full of walkers." Rosita pushed, her voice darkening.

"I'm not dicking around with this crap. We just made it out." Abraham agreed.

"The fences are down. They'll run or die." Maggie added in.

Mia turned around when she heard the leaves crunching. A small gasp left her lips when she saw Carol, living and breathing, and she walked to them with Daryl's crossbow in her hand. Daryl immediately ran to her and took her in his arms, holding her tightly.

The group's eyes widened with amazement at the sight of the woman. Rick stood in front of her in shock. "Did you do that?"

Tears filled her eyes and she gave a very small nod. He hugged her tightly. "You have to come with me." She said when they pulled away and she looked behind him at the others.

They were together again, even if in terrible circumstances. The fire kept growing around them, but they had each other. They were a family.