"I don't think there is such a thing as as a real prophet. You can never predict the future. We know why now, of course; chaos theory, which I got very interested in, shows you can never predict the future." Arthur C Clarke
"You made the right decision to come."
The Alexandrians had formed a small crowd, a sobering affair. A somber mood set about the group as they went to work burying their dead.
Ellen looked on from a distance at the wooden stakes they stuck in the ground, before retreating with a scowl on her face. Somebody's entire life, summed up in one brief sentence, carved on a stick or a stone and lost to the mercy of the elements forever.
"The decision was made a long time ago, before any of us knew each other, when we were all strangers who woulda just passed each other on the street before the world ended."
"And now we mean everything to each other."
Ellen could feel Daryl's gaze trained on her from across the crowd, as she listened to Maggie's speech, and she did her best to ignore the man.
She had been so close to ending this, she thought, still imagining her fists around the Savior leader's neck.
So many people had died. And now they were right back to square one.
"You were in trouble. You were trapped. Glenn didn't know you, but he helped you."
"He put himself in danger for you. And that started it all, from Atlanta, to my daddy's farm, to the prison, to here..."
"To this moment now... not as strangers... "
"As family..."
"Because Glenn chose to be there for you that day a long time ago."
Ellen listened to the woman's words, and felt heat welling up in her eyes. Her mind drifted to Glenn, the kind Korean man she had only known for a day.
She briefly thought of Aaron and Eric, who had found her when she was dying in the woods that fateful day years ago.
She suddenly considered Daryl, who had come back for her. Who had pulled her down from those chains and carried her to safety, at the risk of his own life.
She finally looked up to meet the man's eyes.
"That was the decision that changed everything."
"It started with both of you, and it just grew to all of us to sacrifice for each other, to suffer and stand, to grieve and give, to love and to live, to fight for each other."
"Glenn made the decision, Rick, I was just following his lead."
Eventually, anger overtook her sadness.
Glenn was dead. Along with dozens more.
Ellen felt the storm continue to rage inside her belly, and she tore her eyes away from Daryl's, before turning around and stalking away.
---
Ellen gazed out at the streets of Alexandria.
Despite their removal, the bodies that had recently been scattered along the roads had left stains behind, pools of blood that had to wait till the next rainstorm to be washed away.
All was calm and quiet, surprisingly so after all the chaos that had just passed through.
Ellen thought of Deanna, and what the woman would think of the home she'd built now.
YOU ARE READING
Outcast (A TWD Fanfiction)
Terror(DarylxOCxNegan) A medium prior to the apocalypse, aggressive outsider Eleanor has always had an abnormal connection with the dead. But in this new world, Ellen is forced to rely on her survival skills and nerve to withstand another monster entirely...
