*Sapphire's POV*
They collapsed in on me. All I could feel was cold, dead skin on top of me. All I could smell was rotting flesh. All I could hear was moaning and groaning. All I could think of was Daryl. I knew I would not survive this. I knew it even as a walker buried his teeth into the skin on my neck.
I knew I was dead when blood flooded over my shoulder. I knew I was dead when I tasted it in my mouth. I knew I was dead when I couldn't scream without gargling blood. They had me. I had met the fate I had tried so hard to avoid.
As I thought these words my world collapsed around me. Everything went black. I heard the silence that had once been a beating heart.
A bright white light flashed in front of me. I raised my hand to shield my eyes. Why was there a light here? What did it mean?
I let my hand fall back down to my side. Where there has only been a light moments before, there were two small shadows standing in the middle of it. My babies. My babies were here.
Tears pricked my eyes. Everything I heard about was true. There was a Heaven. There was a place waiting for my children when they had been snatched away from me by walkers.
Then my life started playing in front of my eyes, almost like a slideshow. I relived the moment the man who claimed to love me raped me, I relived the things Bob did, I relived losing my kids, and last but not least, I relived the moments I had with Daryl. I remembered feeling his arms around me, carrying me out of that store. I remembered the warmth of his chest on my back. I remembered his hands on my hips, my nails fastened into his back, I remembered everything we did, every kiss, every touch, every single moment we were together.
And I cried harder. Not for myself, but for him. He had lost so much. He lost his brother. He lost Carol. Now me. How would he cope with this? Could he make it? He had to. He just had to.
My kids walked forward into the light. I hit my knees and pulled them into my arms. "Welcome home, Mommy. We missed you."
*Daryl's POV*
I didn't know what to do. The baby still lay in my arms, limp like a spaghetti noodle. She was beautiful. Funny how, after Judith was born, I started realizing just how beautiful these little creatures were. I wished she had been alive. A selfish thing to wish, considering how the world is now.
What if she had wound up like Lizzie? Nobody really realized how crazy she was, until it was too late. It had costed her her life.
Sapphire would have loved this child. We could have raised her together. After all, there was no way in hell that I was letting these kids stay here by themselves now. They couldn't. The way Sean talked, his girl was pregnant. God knows who else. Possibly that young girl that had been there with Sean and his girl.
What would they do in the event of something like this? That girl would have probably wound up killing this baby if she had tried to get her out. Not that it really mattered. She was dead anyway.
Or was she? Did I just feel her move?
My eyes widened when I felt her move again. She was stirring, letting out tiny squeaks. Her eyes were scrunched up. She was trying her best to cry. I laid her down on the table and rubbed her chest, trying my best to help her cough, or do something, anything, that would make it easier for her to cry.
Eventually she did. She was loud. You could hear the fight in every cry that escaped her little lungs.
I smiled down at her before I took my jacket off and wrapped her up in it. The angel wings met on her chest. She looked like a tiny burrito.
I laughed at that thought. Sapphire would probably roll her eyes or give me a horrified look before she snatched the baby away. She would probably been afraid I would try to take a bite out of the little girl. Or she would act like she was afraid of that, just because she knows I would think it was cute.
I held the little girl for a few more minutes before I turned around. Sean was standing there, alongside a young girl I hadn't met yet. "She needs to eat.", Sean said.
I nodded. Of course she did. I handed the baby to the girl, and she left the tent. I felt like O had lost a limb. I really needed to tell this kid that I was taking them back to camp. They couldn't handle this on their own.
"I need to talk to you." Sean nodded in response. "Follow me," he said.
He led me to the biggest tent. It wasn't much bigger than the tent they had for giving birth to the babies. The inside was messy- Obviously it housed a teenage boy.
"What did you need to speak to me about?"
"I want to take you and your group back to our camp." I waited for him to answer. He looked like he was thinking. Then, he shook his head.
"I don't trust you. I don't trust your group. I think it best if you leave, now."
I shook my head then. "I am not leaving. Not anytime soon. So, you need to get your crap together. I don't want what happened today happening again. What if that had been your girlfriend? What if that had been your child? You need to think about that. It's is not just your life at stake."
He considered that again. "Fine. I'll let my people know."
He stood up straighter, and walked outside, leaving me alone in the tent. I heard kids coming out of the nearby shelters. It sounded as if everyone were meeting in the middle of the camp. I heard his voice, loud and clear, ordering his people to do as they were told.
There came a chorus of wining. Kids were saying they didn't want to go, they didn't want to live with grown ups, they didn't want to do this, or they didn't want to do that. Eventually, he screamed at them that they had to listen to him because he is their leader. It was terrible.
When he came back in the tent, he looked grim. "Okay. They're getting ready. You better hope you know what you're doing here, crossbow man. You better pray you do."
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Hardest chapter I have ever written in my life.
Hope you guys have a good day. Thank you for everything you've ever done. I love you guys. <3
~Breanna
