wastelands → the walking dead ¹

[ 024 ] blood on my hands.

WASTELANDS.

chapter twenty-four, blood on my hands.
[ season two, episode twelve ]

ODESSA REMAINS IN PLACE. She holds onto Dale's body for the entirety of the night in that open field. She feels his body turn cold.

The others try their best to move her but every time someone touches her, they get hit. So they wait until the next morning to move her. When they return to the field, Odessa is in the exact same position she was the night before.

Dale's head against her chest, dried blood crusting on his face and hair and stomach and clothes. Her head pressed against his, her fingers in his hair.

Rick kneels beside her, "Des, we have to bury him." He whispers to her.

She doesn't respond. She just stares at the grass in front of Dale's body as if she can't her him. She is empty, a shell. Dale is dead.

This is real. This is so incredibly, horrifically real. So real that Odessa promises herself she will never get close with another person in this world.

"Des, please." Rick tries again as Shane, T-Dog, and Daryl appear behind him. "We have to move him so we can bury him. Please."

No response again.

Rick looks back at others, "grab her."

No one moves. They all look at the girl who cradles the dead man to her chest. She is covered in his blood, Dale's blood. She doesn't even seem to notice, just as she doesn't notice the men standing around her.

Daryl makes the first move. He steps to the girl and wraps his arms around her middle. As soon as she feels Daryl's touch she reacts. "Let me go," she says quietly. She is too cold and exhausted to hit him.

But when she watches Rick throw a sheet over Dale's body and Shane, and T-Dog help lift his body, she starts to kick and scream and hit.

"No!" She cries out. "Stop it!"

Daryl grunts when he felt her boot makes contact with his shin. He only tightens his grip on the girl.

She pounds her fists on his arms as she watches the others carry Dale from the field and towards their own little graveyard.

A sob rips through her. Daryl continues to hold her. When her knees give out from under her, Daryl has to tighten his hold even more so she doesn't fall.

Eventually, he gently settles himself and Odessa on the ground. She bows her head, crying so hard Daryl is almost sure she's going to burst a blood vessel.

They stays like that until the funeral— Daryl's arms wraps around Odessa, both on the ground. Daryl holding her is Odessa's only connection to the real world and it hurts It hurts so bad.

Dale is dead.

It is so real.

Daryl tells her it was time for the funeral.

She doesn't move.

So he leaves her in the field, telling her he'll come back and get her after the funeral.

She stays there in the same spot as before but this time, without Dale. She stares at the blood on the grass.

Everything is over.

Everything is going to change.

Odessa misses the funeral.

As promised, Daryl returns for her. When he approaches her, she cradles something to her. It's Dale's old hat. It must've fallen off during everything and no one noticed.