.・゜-: ✧☾　☽✧ :-゜・.

Stella had let out a loud cry so loud it had alerted the others in the group. The world moved in slow motion as she watched Rick, Daryl, Carol, and Tyresse hurry outside. Her shock blocked out every sound. She could barely see what was happening in front of her as Daryl and her father kneeled next to her placing one hand on each of her shoulders. She watched their mouths move without hearing a single word. After desperate tries to talk to her they turned to Tyreese who sat kneeled next to one of the bodies that Stella assumed was Karen.

She had no concept of time when she sat there. Soon, reality crashed over her, snapping her out of her trance making her hear everything that happened around her. However, she didn't move a muscle. She just listened as a heated argument played out between Rick and Tyreese. She heard hers and Levi's name being mentioned several times without her reacting.

All she could do was sit there, staring mindlessly in front of her as tears fell freely from her eyes. She had to remind herself to breathe so as to not pass out.

She sat there, feeling completely numb as if every thought and emotion had felt her body in a river of tears, replacing her with a mindless and dark void.

"Stella?"

A shrill voice broke through her trance. For a moment she told herself that she was hallucinating just like she had after Lori's death. But as she looked up she noticed that everyone else had turned to the sound of his voice. Stella's eyes met his and she shot up without hesitation. She pushed through the small crowd that had formed around the two bodies before stopping right in front of him.

"What the hell happe-"

The sound of Levi's voice made the girl act on pure impulse throwing her arms around his neck. At that moment she didn't have a care in the world. No illness was going to stop her from pressing her sobbing face into his shoulder. No matter everyone's eyes on them. It didn't matter that she was risking her life. All that mattered was that he was alive. She cried hard against the fabric of his shirt, soaking in his sent and presence. She never wanted to let go but soon he forced her off him, fearing that he might expose her to whatever he was carrying.

"What happened?" He asked as his gaze shifted between her teary eyes and the two bodies behind her.

"I thought- I-" She stumbled over the words as the sobs left her mouth. "I thought you died."

Deep wrinkles appeared between Levi's brows as he stared at Stella. "What? I was in Caleb's cell."

Overwhelmed by emotions she placed a hand over her chest, feeling every thundering heartbeat. She heard Levi ask Rick what had happened out here earning a quick response but Stella had stopped listening. All she could do was focus on catching her breath and gather herself.

Levi was led back into his isolation cell as the adults started investigating what had happened to Karen and David. Stella learned that the only reason that Levi hadn't been killed along with them was because he had been called to Caleb's cell after coughing up blood. She was worried about him of course but she couldn't think about anything other than the relief that she felt knowing that he was alive.

"Patrick's dead," Stella whispered to Levi who sat on the other side of the pane glass that separated his room from hers. "It's not fair. He was just a child. Not just that. He was Carl's friend."

"I know. He was a good kid too. A bit odd sometimes but he was a good friend." Levi said. "How are you?"

"Still shook up but I'll be fine. You're the one to worry about." Stella stared at him through the glass. He looked weak with pale skin and baggy eyes.

"I've lived through worse. You're not showing any symptoms, right?" His eyes were filled with worry.

"No, I promise. Even if I did it couldn't be worse than being out here." Her gaze fell to her hands that rested in her lap. "We lost a lot of people today. They're burying them outside. The field is turning into a graveyard." Stella kept staring at her hands as she pondered on telling him the idea she had come up with earlier when she was digging graves. She wasn't sure if it was a sensitive subject.

"You okay?" He said, noticing her hesitation.

"Yeah, I'm good." She looked up at him smiling. "Hey, I had this idea earlier. It's probably stupid but... I was thinking that we could make a grave for Astrid." She met his brown eyes waiting for him to react to her suggestion. A sad smile inhabited his face.

This was one of those many moments that showed that Stella was one of the few good things in this world according to Levi. Her suggestion almost brought tears to his eyes. Tears of joy. Stella knew how much Astrid meant to him and what it would mean to him if she did this. He just prayed that he would make it out alive to actually see the grave instead of ending up in one next to it.

"That's-" Levi swallowed and blinked his tears away as he struggled to find the words. "God, I wish I could kiss you right now." Was all he could say making Stella snicker.

"Yeah, well feel better and you will." The now teary girl sent him a smile. It felt like torture not being able to do anything about his current state. Not being able to tell him that everything would be okay because deep down she wasn't sure it would be. The flu had already spread fast. Coughing could be heard everywhere. Kids, elders, almost everyone were being sent into isolation. It was horrible. Like a plague. Even Glenn had it now. Shasha too. Gabriella, Herschel, and Caleb were in the quarantine cellblock risking their lives for the people in there It was just a matter of time before more people died.

"Carl was in here earlier," Levi said.

"He was? He didn't tell me about that." Stella furrowed her brows.

"Came over with a comic book. Since he couldn't exactly go inside and give it to me, we read it through the glass together." Levi flashed her a smile and warmth flicker through Stella's stomach. "It's easy to forget that he's just a child."

Stella hummed in agreement. "I miss the times were kids got to actually be kids. I want that for Carl, for Judith. Go to school. Have friends without constantly having to worry about losing them. Play outside, have family nights."

Levi's eyes scanned Stella's face, his heart aching seeing her upset. He wanted all of that for Carl and Judith. Not just Carl and Judith but to any child being brought into this world.

"When we get through this and everything is back to normal, what do you say we open a school here?"

Stella's head immediately shot up to meet the boy's eyes. She instantly let out a laugh at his suggestion. "What?" She giggled, baffled by the fact that school actually could be a thing even in the apocalypse.

"Come on, it'll be good for them. We could teach. Would give them an opportunity to learn something that's not only about survival. Unless you want Judith to grow up to be a mindless dumbass who can't spell her own name." The boy's words earned a laugh from Stella that soon shifted into a silent cry. She wasn't sure why she was crying. It might have been a mixture of worry and fear of losing Levi. These plans for the future made her fear that maybe he wouldn't be there to see it. She hated to think like that. She couldn't lose him.

"Yeah," She smiled at him through tears, wiping the ones that rolled down her cheek with the sleeve of her shirt. "I'd love that."

"I can't wait to hold you again." His heart shattered seeing her cry even if it might be tears of happiness. Seeing her like that and not being able to comfort her felt like torture. He feared that at this moment he knew for sure that he felt something extremely strong for the girl. He loved her.

________________

Ellie had it. She had been put into isolation immediately after coughing up unsettling amounts of blood. It was unexpected. She was young and healthy. Stella had made Levi promise to look over her. She visited them both repeatedly, not letting a single hour pass without checking up on them at least twice. She would sit with Levi as they spoke about their plans for the school they were going to start up. Levi told her that he could be an English teacher to which she laughed telling him that all they would learn would be a bunch of swear words. As she sat with Ellie she would listen intensely as she let her ramble about Tristian.

After already checking up the two within the span of thirty minutes Stella decided to head outside.

She brought Beth with her and the two began to get the material ready for their project

Now she stood amongst the many other graves that formed a graveyard over the lawn. She wiped some sweat that had formed on her forehead from the previous struggle to shove the wooden cross into the ground. Along with her, stood Beth who had placed a handmade cross in the ground. She had carved in the letters of her mother's name "Annette Greene" in the wood. Stella flashed her a smile as they stared at the graves that they had created. The Grimes girl had made one for Astrid and one for Sophia. She had contemplated on making one for Lilly but that would be losing all hope of her being alive that she so desperately clung to.

"Promise me I won't have to do this with you." Beth broke the silence and stared up at the girl.

"Never," Stella told her with a smile. "Promise me the same."

"I promise." Beth snickered. "We'll be okay," she said. "So will Dad and Levi and Ellie."

Stella nodded with a smile and prayed with everything inside her that Beth was right.

She spun around immediately at the sound of a car in the distance. She turned to see the green car that she knew her father and Carol had taken to go on a supply run earlier. She instantly left the site where they had put up the graves, pacing towards the gates, joining up with Maggie as the two pulled the ropes that opened the gates to the prison. The car passed them before stopping along with the other cars.
Stella was eager to show Carol the grave that she had created, hoping that she would like it. Stella had even placed Cherokee roses around it.

"Judith, Carl, are they okay?" Rick asked as he jumped out of the vehicle.

"Yeah, where's Carol?" Stella asked looking around in confusion as to why she was not with him.

She watched as her father hesitated for a moment before ignoring her question. "Glenn, Herschel, Sasha, Ellie?"

"Yeah, it's bad but they're fighting it. Daryl's not back yet." Maggie responded as Rick turned to walk back.

"Dad? Dad!" Stella shouted after him. "Where's Carol?"

Her father glanced over his shoulder before hesitantly walking back to the pair. "It was her." He said.

"What?"

"She killed Karen and David."
The words that left Rick's mouth lingered in the air as the two girls stared back at him in silent shock. Stella shook her head trying to take it all in. Carol wouldn't do that. Her mind immediately trialed back to the possibility that Levi could have been one of them. She wouldn't kill Levi, would she? Carol had been with them since Atlanta. She had gone through everything with their group, with Levi.

"She was trying to stop it from spreading. I couldn't have her here." Rick said.

"You left her?" Stella asked. She didn't blame him for what he did. In that moment she was too mad at her to even think of the other possibly to bring her back.

"I had to. She has a car and supplies. She'll figure it out." Rick said watching the uncertainty on his daughter's face as she was still in shock. He didn't want her to think badly of him. He wanted to keep his role as the role model and not some traitor who leaves people from their group. "Would you have brought her back?"

Stella shook her head. "If Levi would've been in there she would have killed him too. We can't have her here." She agreed to her father's actions. "You did what you had to I just don't know if I could have."

Her father flashed her an appreciative smile before turning around.

𝐄 𝐋 𝐋 𝐈 𝐄

Death. The word that lingered in the air of the isolation cell block along with the bacteria that left the mouths of the sick ones in the form of scattered coughs. People around her were dropping like flies. She had watched her father trying to move the bodies out of the cellblock as sneakily as possible. He was still in there, putting his life at risk to save the others. He was old and being this exposed to the fast-moving flu was never good for anyone, especially not him. However, Ellie had no strength to try and reason with him. All she could do was lay plastered to her bed, letting her body slowly sweat through her sheets. She was drained of all power and energy making it borderline impossible to even get up to use the bathroom. It felt as though every cough brought her one step closer to death.

She had offered to help her father treat the sick ones who could barely breathe by themselves but both he and Levi agreed that she needed the rest. The sickness had struck her surprisingly hard making her one of the worst-feeling patients.

She lay in her bed slipping in and out of consciousness, clinging onto every minute of sleep she could get when she was woken up abruptly by the familiar snarling sound of a walker outside followed by Lizzie crying out for Herhsel. At the mention of her father's name, she forced herself to a stance. The girl grasped onto the closest objects to keep her on her feet as she moved to the door of her cell to see the horrifying sight of a walker on top of her father.

"Everyone stay in your cells," He ordered to which Ellie did the exact opposite.

She grabbed hold of the closest object which turned out to be a lantern before stumbling forwards, using her last bit of strength to crash the lamp into the walker's head giving her father a momentarily chance to get out of its grip.

"I told you to step back," Herschel shouted at her as he stood back up.

"That's a weird way of saying thank you, but you know, you're welcome!" She shouted back, her voice heavy with sarcasm before she heard a gunshot echo through the cell block, her body jolting back upon the impact.

𝐒 𝐓 𝐄 𝐋 𝐋 𝐀

Stella lifted her axe in the air before letting it crash into the wooden logs. The fences were on the brink of caving in as the walkers piled up outside it. She swung her weapon into the wood rapidly when she heard a distant gunshot from inside the prison. Her gaze immediately shot up, her eyes wide with horror. Carl, Judith, Ellie, and Levi were all in there. Stella watched as Rick and Maggie flinched at the sound, both looking at the prison hesitantly.

Stella stared at them, baffled by the fact that they were just standing there. "What are we waiting for?"

"These fences are more important. We need to keep it standing." Maggie continued to work on the wooden logs.

"They're sick in there. They can't defend themselves." Stella argued.

"Go. We've got this." Rick said. Without hesitation, she dropped her axe before rushing towards the prison doors, pulling her gun out as she bolted through them.

𝐄 𝐋 𝐋 𝐈 𝐄

Panic had erupted in the quarantine cellblock. The gunshot that had grazed Ellie's arm, an inch from hitting her completely, had ended up in the chest of a woman who had tried to help Hershel. The man who had fired to shot must have been aiming for the walker that appeared at the end of the room when he got bit, making him spew out bullets as he cried out for help while the walker ripped the flesh from his neck.

The gunshot had caused Ellie to fall backward, now crouching on the floor as she kept her hand pressed against the bleeding wound on her arm. Hershel had lifted himself from the floor staring at Ellie's hurt arm with terror.

"I'm okay! It barley grazed me." She reassured him, screaming for him to hear her through the panicked cries in the cellblock. Her eyes then fixated on the second floor where she watched Lizzie leading a walker away. She recognized the walker. His name was Henry. He was one of the patients who had problems breathing by himself.

"Are you okay?" Levi kneeled down next to Ellie as he had just stumbled out of his cell and into the chaos in the cellblock.

"I'm good! Get Lizzie before that lunatic of a child gets herself killed!" She yelled and nodded towards the girl on the second floor. Levi hesitated on leaving Ellie before he quickly nodded, gunning up the stairs.

Ellie groaned as she forced herself to a stance. Unable to use her right arm without causing a flaring pain to shoot through it, she had to use her left arm as she stabbed the walker that had killed the man with the gun. The man under him cried out in agony with blood gushing out of scattered bite wounds on his body. She closed her eyes as she sharply ran her blade into his skull, muttering a quiet "I'm sorry, dude" as she did.

Her head then quickly spun around as a chilling scream erupted from Lizzie's mouth. The walker had managed to fall over her, snarling as it fought against her grip to bite her. As Levi had just made it upstairs, he grabbed the walker pushing it off the child before shoving it over the edge and onto the chained fence just as Hershel joined up with them.

"Are you okay, sweetheart?" Levi asked as he checked Lizzie for bites. She nodded, standing to her feet slightly shaken up. "Where's Glenn?!" The boy asked, placing a hand on the side of her face.

"In his cell," Her voice trembled as she spoke.

Ellie watched as Levi helped Lizzie into a cell before he and Herhsel hurried over to check on Glenn. The Greene girl noticed yet another walker, limping out into the cellblock. Being both hurt and unarmed, Ellie was vulnerable. Her eyes darted around before landing on the gun, still in the dead man's hand. She grabbed it, swiftly aiming it at the walker, putting it down with ease.

She heard Stella's voice through the door that separated the isolation block from the rest of the prison and watched as she struggled to get through it. She cried out for Ellie who tried to reassure her that everything was okay.

"You're bleeding?!"

"I'm okay. Stay ba-" Ellie was abruptly interrupted by shotgun shots ringing and piercing through the air. Her eyes were laid on Levi who piled up the walkers on the second floor with his weapon. But what caught her attention was the horrifying scene of her father, struggling against the walker on top of the chained fence. A stab of fear coursed through her body and she didn't hesitate to bring the gun aimed in front of her. It was dark and all that separated the walker from her dad was a mere inch.

"No!" Herschel shouted as he noticed his daughter aiming the weapon at the two. "You could hit the bag. We need it for Glenn!"

Ellie took a deep breath, completely ignoring her father as she put all her focus into aiming before firing a straight shot into the walker's head. He instantly became limp and the bag was still intact. Herhsel stared in shock before snapping out of his trance to grab the bag, standing to his feet.

Ellie turned to tell Stella, who still banged against the door frantically, to stay put before she hurried to help her father on the second floor. She fell to her knees next to Glenn in his cell. Suddenly, she felt no symptoms as all her focus was on helping the man. Nurse Ellie had taken over as she watched Glenn turning blue.

He was gasping for air, squirming and shaking. Ellie placed his head on her lap, rolling it to the side without needing Herhsel to tell her what to do. Red foam spewed from his mouth and Ellie did everything she could to clear his airways.

"Stay with us, Glenn." She repeated. She knew how much Glenn meant to Maggie. Hell, he meant a lot to her too. He was her brother-in-law and a part of her family. She couldn't let him die.

Herhsle soon arrived with the airbag. Again, without a need for him to instruct her what to do, Ellie immediately rolled Glenn on his back giving Herhsel a chance to force it down his throat. He coughed, gagged, and tried to squirm but Ellie used all her force his hold his arms down. Hershel connected the airbag to the tube before giving it a few rhythmic squeezes allowing him to finally breathe again. Once the man was breathing steadily and had calmed down, Ellie pressed her head against his chest gently breathing out in relief that he was alive.

"Thank God." She whispered followed by a cough.

_____ ˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ _____
𝟑𝟔𝟎𝟔 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬
_____ ˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ _____

𝐀/𝐍
get pranked y'all
of course i wouldn't kill Levi off what did u think dummy

no but seriously people have been going insane in my dms and messages on TikTok because they thought I was killing Levi. I would never do that to my pookie dookie bear Lev

(never say never tho)

also this chapter was shit im sorry luvs
new chapter tomorrow or Sunday