How I Live Now • The Walking Dead

4

"What was that?" a man's voice from inside the store said.

"Shit!" she muttered to herself, and before she could crawl back, another woman came out and saw her.

"Hey! It's a knife! Hers!" The woman pointed to the roof, but Agnes crawled back, out of their sight.

"Come out! We won't hurt you!"

Of course. They saw Agnes's child-like features and they just assumed that she was helpless.

God knows she could take their asses out with three flicks of her wrist, if she needed to. Faster than they could react.

"Take the knife if you want, but leave! Leave now, we don't have to interfere with each other!" Agnes yelled.

"Please, just come down! We just need to talk."

"Just go now! This doesn't have to drag on longer than it should!"

After quite a while of the three people on the ground insisting that Agnes come down, and Agnes refusing, she realized that they really weren't going to leave.

She climbed down, and the woman handed back her knife.

You idiot. Do you know what I can do with this? I could take out all of you right now.

Agnes, in her gut, had a feeling that she should. She should get rid of them. They looked like welcoming people, but she saw past their cover. She always could.

But she didn't do anything about it.

"Honey, what's your name?" the oldest woman said, and Agnes had to retain her eye roll. Honey? They saw Agnes as a child, her pale skin and short stature making her look younger than she actually was.

"Sheila." She lied. She didn't know why, but she felt like it was the right thing to do. She didn't trust them enough for her to let them know her name.

"Sheila, I'm Karen. That's Melanie and that's Jacob."

Agnes stayed quiet.

"Do you have camp?"

"No," she huffed.

"...How long have you been by yourself?"

"A while." Not the truth, but not exactly a lie.

"How old are you?" Jacob spoke up.

"Does age matter anymore?"

"Everything matters," he said, and smiled at her.

She mentally shook her head, alarms going off in her head.

I don't like them. I don't trust them. They're too nice. "Everything Matters"? Nothing matters anymore.

Agnes stared at him, her gaze like daggers in his head.
If only.

She never answered their question. Once she realized they wouldn't leave her alone, and that they were ultimately walking in the same direction she was planning on going, she really saw no way out.

On the road, Karen tried to talk to Agnes. She mistook Agnes's permanently cold facial expression for her actual emotions.

"Are.. Are you okay? Is there something you want to talk about?" Melanie asked her, and she shook her head.

"Why do you ask that?" Agnes said, her voice harsh.

"I just- You look... you look like you're sad... or annoyed."