𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙠 ↠ 𝘤.𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴

47: Strangers

It's been a day and a half. Since Terminus,  since finding out family member's fates, since Elle and Jack learned that their brother's life was taken by the sickness at the prison.

The two siblings were quiet and barely spoke, even to each other. The only time a member of the group would hear a noise come from them, they would hear their crying. Sometimes they tried to cry quietly, but other times, they didn't care. And nobody judged them. They lost one of the most important people in their life, and they were suffering.

The air was hot, and everyone was sweating. Elle was wearing 3 layers, but she was too exhausted to take one or two of them off. Her curls clung to the back of her neck and she didn't have a hair tie or anything else to tie her hair up with. The gun she held barely sat in her arms, she was too tired to hold it.

The sun beat down on her, and everyone else as they walked through the forest, no particular destination in mind at that moment. Eugene claimed to have a cure, and Abraham and Rosita were focused on getting him to Washington DC, where Eugene could potentially turn the world around. Elle didn't believe any of it, but who was she to crush other people's dreams? She wanted to believe, she envied those who believed this whole thing would blow over. But recently, everytime she hoped for anything, it only killed her a little bit more.

Elle brought her hand up to her forehead and wiped away the sweat, only to sweat some more. She thought she heard a man yelling, causing her to look up from the forest floor. Everyone else had heard it as well, because Carl was trying to convince his father to go help him. Rick hesitated, but complied. They all quickly made their way to the man.

As they approached, they saw a man, who looked to be a priest, sitting on top of a large rock. There were four or five walkers reaching up for him. He can't handle a few walkers? Elle thought. She already didn't like this man. Rick and some of the others took down the remaining walkers.

"Keep watch," Rick instructed, making sure any walkers that were alerted by the gun fire were killed. "Come on down." He told the man. The man, who wore a terrified look on his face, slowly pushed himself off of the boulder.

As he stood in front of Rick, he held up a finger, before turning to the side, vomiting. Rick, obviously annoyed, rolled his eyes. The man coughed, and wiped his mouth. Rick started asking the man questions, making Elle zone out. 

She didn't listen to the conversation, and thought back to what she always thought back too the last twenty-four hours; Cody. Just barely three weeks ago, Cody was perfectly healthy, cracking jokes, laughing, he was alive. She would never see her brother again. She felt a single tear fall down her cheek.

"Elle," Someone said, snapping her out of her thoughts. She looked up to see Glenn pointing at something behind her. She turned around to see a walker slowly stumbling towards her. She stood still, letting it get closer, step by step. 

When it finally got close enough to where she could reach out, she grabbed its' arms, turning the two of them around. She shoved the undead person into the boulder, smashing its' head onto the hard surface. She watched as blood sprayed from it's caved in skull. She let go and stepped back, letting the once again dead body fall to the ground.

"Couldn't have just used your knife?" Sarah thought out loud.

"You want me to use my knife?" Elle snapped, taking a knife from her belt while walking towards the brown haired girl.

"Hey, hey hey." Glenn said, stepping in between the two. Elle rolled her eyes before returning to her brother's side.

"Do you have a camp?" The man, who they learned to be Gabriel, asked.