Collision

Chapter Twenty Six

~ Chapter Twenty Six ~

Ellie's P.O.V.

"Is that really all there is to it? We just apply pressure to both these buttons at the same time and the door opens?" I asked dumbfounded. There must've been a twist. This was ultimately too easy for a mastermind to let us slip through. "Maybe there are thousands of infected waiting just outside that door to devour us!"

Pained looks on faces were all around me. Carl was the only one who kept a sly smile on his face, everyone else let their doubts ruin their hope.

Michonne stepped up, killing the silent sadness, "We could think of a million maybes that could happen when we open that door, but all that we have to worry about right now is getting out of here."

"She's right. We deal with this first then, and only then, should we worry about what's next to overcome. We've gotten this far already, I'm sure we can deal with whatever's out there," Rick added, adding a bit of inspiration to the dead emotions we were feeling. 

"What are we going to do about the load? We don't have enough belongings to combine and put on both the buttons, and besides, if we did that, we'd be left with nothing out there," a lady from the group asked. We still hadn't gotten introduced, but we all the same goal in mind: to get out of here.

"Yeah, we wouldn't want to wait until people randomly step on them at the same time either. That would take ages..." Joel added, pondering about other effective ways.

"How much load do these things need in order for them to be fully pressed?" Rick asked, trying to push down the button with his bare hands.

Joel stood up from the ground, "I tested it, Ellie alone couldn't sink it down fully, but when I got on by myself, it seemed to sink perfectly fine. My theory? That it needs at least 150 pounds, just enough to trigger that latch."

"Then we couldn't have loaded our belongings in the first place. All of our stuff alone is less than a hundred. Unless we..." Carol's voice faded away. I turned my head towards her and saw hesitancy in what she was about to say.

"Unless we what?" Pressured Rick, his voice firm and gruff.

"Now's not the time to say so," Carol shook her head slowly, thus only causing our curiosity to further grow. Daryl nudged her in the arm as if to tell him alone, but she only responded with a silent no, her lips pressed in a thin line. With a grunt, Daryl walked off, informing us that he'd stay and watch the hallways around us.

"Okay, we can stay one night in the nearest room thinking about ways that we could all get out of here. For now, since it's getting dark, let's move out," Rick directed, grabbing his bag from the floor, Carl doing the same. Rick never left his eyes off Carol, and she noticed as well, finally realizing that she had to tell us what she thought, sooner or later.

As the group walked off to the nearest holographic room, I became suddenly aware of the bottle I'd left in the corner of the wall near the button. Jogging back, I noticed that Rick and Carol were having a private conversation, a deep one. Without wanting to interrupt, I stayed crouching on the wall behind, hoping that they'd soon be done their talk so I would be able to grab my water bottle. Unfortunately I overheard what they were saying, causing my interest to be quenched.

"This is bringing us back to the incident with Karen and David. Though it's great that you've found your way and saved us from those walkers, you still don't have the right to take these people's lives away, no matter how much of a stranger they are to you," Rick was tense, I heard his voice attempting to calm itself.

"No matter how you think of it, you know this is how it's ultimately going to end. We only need two people, Rick. Two people. No one in our group knows these people to trust them enough in the long run. What I'm saying is, we get rid of the threat and open those doors," Carol pleaded.

I sat there in denial. Carol was plotting to kill two people and use them as loads for the buttons. With shaky hands, I decided to get up and leave before I heard too much, but Rick's reply willed me to stay and listen.

"I get that we have people we need to reunite with, but they might have people too. Imagine if we came across those people that cared about them and spilled about how we had to kill the people they loved to benefit ourselves. It's not right."

There was a pause before Carol spoke, with a hushed tone, "Then how do you suppose we're going to get out of here? It won't be long before God knows what's going to happen. These people? They're lunatics, and it wouldn't help us in any way to just stay in here."

"We would be lunatics as well, if we killed those two people," Rick sighed.

"Look at this place! We don't do this. We kill to survive. Those lunatics kill to laugh, to have fun. We're not people who kill for entertai-"

"Ellie!" Joel's voice boomed throughout the hallways, interrupting their conversation. Shit, I thought, as I cautiously ran and found my way to the holographic room, screw the damn water bottle. Silently, I heaved a sigh of relief and embarrassment, hoping that Carol and Rick didn't catch on to what just happened. What I shouldn't have done.

Rick and Carol made their way inside the room, their faces quickly changing from solemn to a happy expression. "Someone left this in there?" Carol announced, holding up the water bottle filled halfway.

I walked up to her, attempting to stop my knees from shaking with fear, "yeah, sorry, that's mine, I didn't notice it was gone. Thanks."

She nodded with a smile and handed me the bottle, turning to the group and conversing with Michonne. 

The rest of the night was interestingly normal. Rick and Carol never spoke once to each other, or about their talk to anyone in the room. I raised an eyebrow as everyone decided that it would be fine if we didn't have anyone to watch. It was a safe room anyways. Judging the fact that they didnt' hear what I had just heard, I was silently disagreeing with everyone.

It was impossible for me to sleep. Knowing that something could happen kept me up. I opened my eyes and immediately closed them when I glimpsed Carol and Rick writing invisible letters on the wall with their fingers. They were having a silent conversation, so it seemed. I subtly turned my body to comfortably face them, still pretending to be asleep. 

As I watched them raised their hands, lower it, and raise them again, I realized one thing. They weren't writing letters, this was morse code. Fortunately, Joel had an obsession with the military once and taught me years ago about morse code. It was basically my second alphabet.

Carol: .. - / .-- .. .-.. .-.. / .-- --- .-. -.- (It will work)

Rick: .-- .... .- - / .. ..-. / -. --- - ..--.. (What if not?)

Carol: - .-. ..- ... - / -- . (Trust me)

With that, both their arms were lowered, their bodies remained frozen until Rick turned to her. I never knew Rick was the type of man to agree to this kind of occult action. I always thought of him like Tommy: loyal, confident and honourable. But as he slowly nodded his head, eyes closed and lips pulled in a straight line, all those characteristics slowly combined and turned into one: fearful.

{Author's Note}

Pardon the morse code, it probably looks really odd, but I couldn't think of any other creative way for them to communicate (other than mouthing words or whispering, which is pretty awkward in my opinion).

I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to other ways of writing the alphabet...

But anyways, happy reading!

~ B.