Leah Grimes

Chapter 115

"Can we go play?" RJ asked. I nodded watching as Judith and Lydia were petting a cat near us. I turned my head for only a second when I realized Judith was gone. I checked a couple rooms and then I noticed her sword was gone too.

"Fuck," I whispered hurrying outside. I saw little footprints in the mud heading east so I followed them. I stopped walking when I heard voices. The first was Judiths, "please I want to stay." Daryl shook his head, "no." Judith shrugged, "I left Leah a note. I swear it's fine." Daryl looked at her, "you can't do that to her, you know that. It wasn't a question, let's go." Judith stopped, "no, I hate it up there. Everyone's so angry, even Leah. I know she's trying but I don't want to go back yet. I wanna learn what you do, how to keep us safe. I don't want Leah to get hurt again, I want to help." Daryl sighed, "Leah is more than capable of looking after herself, and she has been through a lot, more than most of the adults here, believe me." She nodded, "I know she has I want to do this for her, Please." He gave in, "alright, I walk the perimeter, look for anything off. I find something that looks strange, I go somewhere safe and radio it in. There's no room for mistakes." Judith nodded, "I know." Daryl agreed, "if you do this with me you do everything I say, stay by my side. You're sisters gonna be pissed." Judith shrugged, "I know, I'll apologize when I get back, I promise I'll listen."

I waited for them to walk away to follow behind a bit farther away. Daryl wasn't stupid I'm sure he would know I was out here soon. I liked that they were spending time together, but I didn't like that Judith thought she had to protect me.

I saw a few walkers coming towards them and Daryl pulled Judith behind a tree. I watched the one walker and knew immediately it was a whisperer, "look out." I called from behind them. Daryl let his arrow go, and I watched the whisperer take off with it in their shoulder.

I helped clear the walkers that were following that person and then looked at the two of them, "let's go."
We slowed our run down to a walk and Judith looked at me, "how long have you been out here?" I stared at the two of them, "long enough. You shouldn't have come out on your own and you knew that Judith. And Daryl you should have brought her back at least to tell me that she was safe." Daryl nodded, "I know." I looked down at Judith, "I know you think you need to do this for me. But you don't. I'm fine, my job is to keep you safe. Got it?" She started to protest but I put my hand up, "Judith, I've seen too many people die, adults, older kids, no one is invincible in this world. Daryl and I we still don't go out without at least telling someone. Its not fair to anyone to just leave. Alright?" She gave me a small nod, "I'm sorry." We walked in silence until I heard a rustling in a ditch in front of us. I stepped to the edge and the whisperer Daryl shot was laying down. I watched as she pulled a knife out, and I shook my head, "drop it." Her eyes met mine and she sighed, "can you pull this thing out of me, I can't die like this." I raised my eyebrow, "drop your knife and I'll think about it." She threw it to the side and Daryl looked down, "where are your people?" She nodded east, "a few miles out, they're heading to Oceanside, I couldn't stay there. Not with him. He's lost it." I bit my lip, "Beta?" She nodded, "will you take this out now?" I sighed, "does he know where we are." The girl closed her eyes trying to breathe through her pain, "I don't know, but he's gonna keep coming for you. You took too much."

Daryl stepped forward releasing an arrow into the girls head and I tried to block Judith's view. "Come on," I whispered. "You didn't have to do that." Judith said to Daryl. He shrugged, "she was gonna die, better to be quick. Cmon." Judith grabbed my hand, "we're just gonna leave her? Maybe she has a family." Daryl sighed, "look they're only a few miles away, let's go see if we can spot something from the top of the tower."

We were on our way back and Judith suddenly stopped. "What is it?" Daryl asked. She sighed, "I can't believe we just left her in a ditch. What if you were lost, or Leah, or Mom?" Daryl bit his lip, "where is this coming from?" She shrugged, "I just want us to be together again, at home. That's all." He nodded, "I radioed your mom, so she knows not to go home. And she can find us." Judith bit her lip, "it doesn't matter. I'm worried maybe she won't come home. I didn't want to tell you, or Leah about what she found." I knelt down, "why not?" She shrugged, "because then maybe you'll leave too. He's your dad, you thought he was dead, why wouldn't you leave. Promise me you won't." I sighed, "we don't know what's going to happen, no one does. But I know there's a lot of people back there, who will do anything for you. You have family all around you." Daryl put his hand on her shoulder, "no one can take the place of your mom. But not everything that follows is gonna break your heart."

We started to walk again but the radio clicked. "Daryl..." He was cutting out. "Gabriel you're cutting out." It clicked again, "they're here... they're surrounding...." It cut out again, "we have to go," I whispered.

We started running back the way we came. Walkers were surrounding our building. "Judith grab my hand." She took it and we started sprinting towards the door. "Let's go, let's go." Carol, and Kelly were running behind us too. Once we were all in Daryl slammed the door shut. The horde was already here. I slammed my hand off the wall, "fuck."