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chapter fifty-nine | the basement
"I HAVE TO stay back? Seriously?"
Laurel sighed and pushed herself off the cell wall. Ethan stared at her with a stoic face, shouldering his pack. "It's safer this way. Just stay—" Laurel tried to reason with her.
Ethan rolled his eyes, "with Cassie, yeah, I know." Ethan turned on his heels and went to leave the cell before stopping and looking at his sister. "You would think after a whole year, something would change."
Laurel scoffed, watching him leave and jog down the stairs. Laurel walked forward to the railing and watched him leave the cell block as she mumbled, "Shithead."
She heard movement from her right and glanced over, tensing up in reflex. She immediately relaxed when it was just Daryl. He gave her an amused look as he leaned on the railing next to her.
"You heard?"
Daryl shook his head, "I heard nothin'."
She glanced at him with a 'definitely don't believe you' look, and he cracked a small smile. She couldn't help her cheeks slightly turning pink as her lips pulled into a smile like his. She turned to him and leaned her hip against the railing with her arms crossed. "You ready for this?"
His features turned determined and he shrugged, "Gotta be, you?"
"Gotta be."
➸
Cassie held Beth's hand as they watched from the distance as the Governor's men ran out of their home. The gunfire echoed throughout the forest and Cassie flinched frequently every time she heard screams. Carl, Hershel, Beth, Judith, Ethan, and her huddled around the car as the rest of their group fought.
She prayed her sister and the others were okay. That the plan she didn't trust in the beginning was working.
The plan was for the Governor and his people to storm into the prison, to see that they have "left", not wanting to fight. But when they go deeper inside, they meet Daryl and Laurel's flashbangs and the never-ending walkers in the tombs that the two led to stop them from going any further. Laurel thought, per Ethan's explanations of the Governor's wannabe military, that they would run from the fear and chaos. They were innocents controlled by him.
Cassie watched as Laurel turned out to be right. Maggie and Glenn fired at them from the walkways as they climbed into their military trucks and sped out of their prison.
Cassie turned to Hershel, "they did it, they really did it."
Hershel smiled, reaching behind Beth and patting the small girl on the back. "Just needed a little faith."
Their smiles dropped as tree branches broke in front of them. Hershel shushed them quickly, his eyes searching behind the trees. A beanie peaked out and Hershel quickly motioned for the girls to hide. Beth held onto Cassie's hand and tugged her behind their car, where Judith slept. Hershel stood over them as Carl raised his gun with Ethan next to him.
