❪ 𝗚𝗢𝗢𝗗 𝗘𝗡𝗢𝗨𝗚𝗛 ❫

𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗍𝖾𝗋  𝗍𝗐𝗈 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━
the helicopter crash.  ╱  season three, episode one.

HOURS AND MINUTES bleed together, it feels like it's been days but Toby knows it's been a matter of hours. The air is dry, leaving a stale heat-filled wind to blow through. Warm sweat curls at the greasy locks at the base of Toby's neck. He grunts softly, hiking up his bag further up his shoulders, trying to keep his mind on anything but his slowly growing fatigue. His eyes waver often from the women behind him to the little boy by his side, who looks more exhausted than him.

Toby worries about Thomas a lot, he just doesn't know how much more of moving from one place to the next he can take. Thomas was never the strongest kid around, and Toby just fears something will happen to him when he's not around. So most of Toby's life consists of him keeping a close eye on his little brother, he doesn't know what he'd do if something happened to Thomas on his watch.

Thomas is the only link he has to his family, everyone else was gone or dead. Thomas was the only one left, and he deeply depends on Toby for survival. Toby can feel the memory of his mother breathing down his neck, whispering in his ear, how Thomas was his responsibility, how he needed to keep him alive. He felt as if his mother would be disappointed and disgusted with him if something happened to Thomas.

Toby wanted the best for the boy, his heart already ached to watch this be the reality of Thomas' childhood. No kid should have to grow up during this, society was no more, things would never be the same for anyone. No more holidays, no more birthdays, no more nothing. Society as they knew it was gone, there was nothing left but broken dreams and horror-filled days ahead.

Days felt fleeting, like Toby's clock of life was fading, he never knows when he wakes up if he'll be alive by sundown. Things can change in a matter of minutes, something can swing by and take any hope of his future with it. The boy felt always on edge, waiting for the next shitty thing to come barling through and fucking up his life yet again. He wanted to remain hopeful, but he knew hope was a sucker's game. No matter how much he prayed to a seemingly radio silent god, things would never change, or at least things wouldn't change on their own.

Everything held a weight to it, his bag, his emotions and fears, hell, even his nail covered bat. Toby felt everything about himself weigh his chest down. He always kept it to himself, like his emotions would be a burden to anyone else. He carried on, wearing a brave face, not letting the people around him see the fearful boy hiding behind his eyes, or that he was slowly fading away into a person he doesn't recognize. Maybe one day he'll gain the courage to let someone in, but right now he had a job, keeping the people around him alive. And with that in mind, he doesn't have time to worry about anything else.

Normally, if Toby saw incessant smoke in the distance, he would probably ignore it, knowing something he doesn't want to be caught up in lies there. But with the loud crash that practically shook the earth, it made him stop. He was hesitant but with the curious glance between the two women next to him, he knew he had no say in what was going to happen.

A small tug on his ratty sweatshirt caught his attention, looking down, his eyes found the fearful ones of his little brother, "Toby, I don't want to go,"

Toby attempted to hide his own hesitance by giving Thomas a small smile, "Tommy, it'll be okay, just stick by me alright?"

With a nod from his little brother, Toby began pushing them ahead, so they stayed in step with Andrea, keeping Michonne and her walkers behind them.

Michonne's walkers had never failed to make Toby uneasy, he slept with more tension hearing them rustle around at night. But it wasn't like he could ask Michonne to kill them, he knew why she had them, he knew who they were, he knew her story. Michonne was someone who he opened up to a bit, after eight months with someone by your side, it's hard not to let them in a little.

While he seemed cold and rude on the outside, Michonne knew how much of a softy Toby was on the inside. That's one of the reasons she was so protective over him, she couldn't bare to see someone like Toby hurt. She did everything with him and Thomas in mind. Every single step or move Michonne took was with the boys' benefit in mind.

Toby and Michonne often had the same mindset about things, they were very pessimistic and rough around the edges. While it took Thomas a matter of a few hours to warm up to Andrea, it took Michonne and Toby days, even weeks, to remotely trust Andrea. Trusting people were very hard to come by in times like these. The two were very protective of the people they trust and when new people come up, it's hard to give in to their bullshit.

But one day, Toby hopes it'll get easier to trust people, but he knows with the way the world is going, it'll only get harder.

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TOBY NEVER GOT too surprised often, once in a while he'd see something shocking, how could you not in a world like this? When seeing the sky turning a bleak grey, he expected the smoke to be caused by something like a house or hell, even a giant bonfire. But he sure as hell didn't expect them to come across a helicopter crash.

The tragic sight makes him cringe a bit, he subconsciously stands in front of Thomas so the boy doesn't have to see it. His eyes waver around, already not liking the feeling of this situation. He watched the two women next to him become deflated from the find. Toby's mouth twists in disgust as Andrea instantly bends over and heaves whatever was the contents of her stomach onto the forest floor.

Michonne was immediately by her side, placing a caring hand on her back, "Don't push yourself," The woman was soon leading Andrea away from the mess she made and behind the bush, so she could huddle to the ground, "You better sit,"

After locking the two walkers behind the tree, she dug through the bag by Andrea's side to hand her the gun, "I'll check it out,"

She quickly turned to the two boys behind her and gestured towards the helicopter with her eyes meeting the eldest Emerson boy, "Toby,"

In an instant, the boy was leading his brother towards Andrea, making him take a seat next to her. Toby gave the little boy a stern look, "You stay here and I'll be right back,"

Thomas quickly gripped his hand to stop him from going off, "Toby wait-"

"Tommy, I'll be fine," Toby replied, attempting to send him a comforting smile.

Without waiting for a reply from the young boy, Toby dropped his pack and headed towards Michonne's awaiting side with his bat gripped tightly in his hands. He glanced back a few times, check to see if the two were okay. His eyes constantly wavered around him, feeling a little dread pooling at the bottom of his stomach.

A soft, almost silent gasp escaped his lips, "Oh my god," His eyes glued to the body of an apparent soldier, who seemed to be cut in half. The blood sinking into the forest floor made him feel a little ill, but the look of the guts that poured out of the body made him feel even worse.

Toby's eyes never left the man as Michonne walked around the body to take a look at the helicopter itself. Before the boy could react, he was getting dragged away by Michonne. The boy stumbled from the tight grip of the hurrying woman, but caught himself when he heard the revving of engines in the distance. They immediately dropped to the forest floor when they reached the other two hunkering behind a bush.

"Someone's coming," Michonne rushed out in a hushed whisper.

"Any survivors?" Andrea questioned.

"Two dead, not sure about the other," Michonne replied, eyes never leaving the crash in front of her.

Tommy immediately sent Toby a look of fear swirling in his bright doe eyes, but the older boy just wrapped an arm around him and pulled him close, in hopes that would calm him, "Nothing's gonna happen, just be quiet,"

Three heavy grade trucks pulled up a few yards away, Toby's eyes widened, watching multiple men file out.

"Fan out," The leader announced, Toby quickly pulled the gun out of the back of his pants, ready in case something happened.

In the far back, Toby could see a man lifting up his gun to shoot, what he thought was a walker. But the leading guy stopped him, "Save those rounds until you might need 'em,"

Andrea let out a muffled cough, Toby prayed that they didn't hear it. To him, the cough sounded like a clap of thunder, he snapped his eyes shut, hoping no one heard it. But all attention was trained on two walkers that were making their way up to the crash site, soon enough a guy with a metal bat made his way up to them. With no hesitation, he swung his bat with all his might knocking one of them to the ground and leading up with smashing the other right in the top of the head. Toby winced, seeing the access brain and blood splash from the rough swing.

"Got a breather! Tim!"

The Emerson boy's eyes snapped to the voice, watching as new man rush over to the side of the door where their leader resided, and they began dragging a limp man out of the machine. But yet another thing caught his attention, the raspy snarls of a walker approaching the scene behind them. Toby's body immediately locked up, frozen, his mind blank on what to do. He felt Tommy's grip on his arm tightening, he sent Michonne a quick glance, wondering what her move was. Before she could unsheath her sword, Andrea stopped her, "No,"

Seconds felt like an eternity, watching the walker shuffle by, but with the two walkers behind them, made the single one walk by, leaving them undetected.

"Over here, Shumpert,"

The walker was instantly shot at by an arrow and collapsed to the grass covered ground. The group's attention moved back to their rounds and not to the direct spot Toby and everybody was. A sigh of relief escaped Toby's lips, hoping that this would be the only instance where they were almost noticed.

But as Andrea watched them pull out the injured man, she had an idea, "He's saving them, we should show ourselves,"

Toby was instantly against the idea, knowing that nothing could come out of this, just from looking at them he got a bad feeling. Michonne seemingly had the same idea, "Not yet,"

But of course, something had to go wrong, and the walkers behind them began acting up. With a fearful look rising on his face, Toby nervously snapped his head between the walkers and the group in front of him. Michonne and Andrea began to freak out too, knowing that they were gonna get caught because of these damn walkers.

But something caught Toby's eyes, an almost human moan flowed through the air, overpowering the light rattling that their walkers caused. The leader unsheathed his knife looking down at one of the dead men on the ground. Thoughts began swirling in Toby's brain, maybe he was alive, but then why did he have his knife out?

Toby couldn't believe his eyes, he watched the man—without hesitation—drop down and sink his knife into the man's body. He just killed that man. At that moment, Toby wanted to get the hell out of there, he didn't want to go anywhere with them. They all seemed to be in agreement, hoping they could just wait them out.

His heart raced with every minute that went by, he could feet his heart pounding in his eardrums. Fear flooded his veins watching that their walkers had finally got the attention of those men. He gripped his gun tighter sending Michonne a helpless glance, hoping she would just kill them so they could get the hell away from these men. She did exactly as he hoped. Jumping up with hesitance, in two fluid motions, she sliced their heads clean off. A splatter of blood instantly got whipped across Toby's right cheek, but he ignored it, feeling slight relief that the walkers were finally gone. But then once the snarls were gone, a soft calm, quiet flowed through the air, leaving the men questioning what just happened.

"Let's rollout,"

Those words were like music to Toby's ears, his head fell forward in relief as the men began making their way to their vehicles. His grip on his gun loosened, he moved his hand back lightly, about to shoved it back into his holster, but a loud snap of a branch and an unfamiliar voice caught his attention. Toby's grip was tight, about to whirl himself around to face the stranger.

"Uh, uh, uh, easy does it, you two," The voice rung condensing in Toby's ears, a scowl twisted onto his face as anger flooded in his viens, "Mine's a whole lot bigger than yours, now put down your weapons,"

It took all of Toby's strength to lower his gun, fierce frustration scrunched on his face, he wanted nothing more than to whip around and give this guy all he was feeling. But he was pretty sure the man had a gun pointed at them. He tried to take deep breaths to calm himself, but the man's voice and stature irked him too much, "That's it, nice and easy, and let me see your hands,"

A scream of hatred burned at Toby's throat, just itching to make it's way up. But Toby sighed, slowly putting his gun on the ground to raise his hands. Soon everyone followed the man's orders. A prick of fear rose in Toby's body as he found himself looking at his brother, who now had tears dripping down his cheeks. "now spin around, that's it, nice little twirl around,"

"Oh, holy shit, Blondie," Once Andrea twirled completely around, a sadistic smile was plastered on the stranger's face. Toby's eyes faltered between them, wondering what was happening. The man creepily trailed his eyes up and down her body, "Damn, You're looking...good,"

Toby sent the man a disgusted glance, watching as the man's eyes never leave Andrea's as he shoved the sword contraption up a walkers head, not to mention in the place where his hand should— wait where the fuck is his hand?

Toby couldn't even comprehend the thought of that, as he was still watching the utter shock fall across Andrea's face. The man seemed to enjoy the shock as he stood up sending her a bright smile, "Now, how's about a big hug for your old pal Merle?"

After the teasing question that made Toby's skin crawl, the woman it was directed to, instantly dropped to the ground, in what Toby thought was shock.

But before he could do anything to help, a loud whistle echoed through the air, and men from Merle's group flocked the four of them in a swift motion. Toby barely had a chance to react before he was grabbed and pulled harshly up to his feet. The boy caused a struggle, wriggling, kicking, and yelling for those douchebags to let go of him, he could hear the panicked calls of his name by Thomas, which only made him squirm more. Before Toby was able to kick one of them again, the boy got rammed in the head by the butt of a pistol, and that was all it took for the boy to go limp.

The world slowly spun around him, his head snapped to the side in a haze, watching his little brother panic more once he saw him get hurt. But Toby could do nothing to calm his little brother as the world around him slowly faded to black.

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✿❣︎ 𝘼𝙐𝙏𝙃𝙊𝙍'𝙎 𝙉𝙊𝙏𝙀  ❣︎✿

HEY IM BACK WITH
AN UPDATE FOR MY
BABY TOBY!!!!

I HOPE IT GOT EXCITING
FOR YOU! CAUSE I KINDA
VIBED WITH IT!!

I actually kind of hate the
writing in this chapter but
whatever.

I can't wait to write more of
Toby, he's a real sassy boy
when he gets defensive and
you'll see a lot of that in the
next chapter.

Also Danny won't be in a few
chapters cause they won't meet
ricks group in a hot sec so bare
with me. But I'm so excited cause
Toby's such a dick to strangers.

Hope you enjoyed!