RULE THE WORLD | D.DIXON

098

WE'll BE A FINE LINE-098

A DAY LATER

Her heart was pounding in her chest as she sprinted through the woods towards her father. Her hair whipped behind her, weaving through the trees and her eyes darted to the herd of walkers a few feet away from her.

She had found out what her father was planning after she found a piece of paper he had left in the box under the floor borders in her room. She rode Satellite up until he got spooked by the herd making her run on foot, following the walkers.

After her and husband had checked grid two, her father kicking out the rest of the Saviors, she decided to return home to Alexandria. When she was putting Cassie down for her nap, the floor-broad where she kept her box of important stuff was ajar.

The only people who know about the box was her husband and her father. That where she saw the note for her father with:

It's you and me forever.

That's when it clicked. Her father was planning something.

Breaking from the tree line at the intersection where the two herds' were going to meet, her eyes locked on her father who was unconscious and impaled by a rod.

"Dad!" She screamed, racing towards him. "Dad, wake up! Wake up!"

Her father jolted awake, gaping out as his eyes locked on his daughter. The woman's head darted between the two herds that were extremely close before grabbed handfuls of her father shirt.

"This is gonna hurt like hell." Matilda said, before pulling her father upwards and off the rod.

He screamed out in pain as he collapsed to his knee, panting. Matilda swung his arm around her shoulder, helping him stumble to his feet before they started towards the white horse.

Matilda helped her father into the horse before she climbed on behind him. It started to rain heavily as a horse trotted down the road, she wrapped an arm around his waist and her hand grazed his wound.

"Y-you shouldn't be here." Her father kept saying over and over again. "I need to kept you and them safe. I need to stay awake."

He had passed out a couple of times before coming back and saw a mailbox up ahead. The horse started to move fast, before they got to an abandon house. Matilda slid off the animal, helping her father and stumbled towards the house.

The front door was boarded up with the writing 'Come face me asshole' on it. The father and daughter stumbled towards the back of the house.

"Sit down." Matilda said, helping her father sit on a chair.

She grabbed a piece of ripped curtain from the table and tied it around her father's wound. He grunted before he passed out again. Matilda catch his head, laying it back against the chair before looking around.

There was two dead copses, laying on the ground with guns in their hands and the walls where littered with bullets holes. The scene explained the writing on the front door.

The sound of growling alert the woman as a Walker stumbled into the house. The herd had catch up with them, Matilda swung her hammer before pushing it away as more walkers came through.

"Dad!" Matilda yelled, shaking her father. "Dad! Wake up! We gotta go!"

Rick jolted awake, shot to his feet and pushed the table so it was blocking the walkers. The father and daughter broke the front door, crawling through hole as the woman grabbed ahold her father and pulled him the rest of the way out.

"C'mon!" She shouted, pulling him to his feet and onto the horse. "Go!"

The horse took off down the road, Rick grunted in pain as the movement jolted his wound. As they trotted down the main road, her father started to mumbled stuff under his breath.

"You shouldn't be here." He murmured. "Gotta find my family. Gotta kept you and them safe. You shouldn't be here, little butterfly."

Matilda snapped towards her father, her heart clutched hearing his nickname for her. He has called her little butterfly since she was thirteen.

"You shouldn't be here, little butterfly."

She swallowed, her hand clutching the fabric of his blood-covered shirt. "Remember when I was six, you took me to Nana's for ice cream after you and mom had that really big fight. We sang our song and went on that long walk before we went home." She received a weak nod. "You said you'll never leave me. That we'll do everything together because it's you and me forever. I can't let you do this alone. It's either us, nobody at all."

Her father didn't reply, only grabbed her hand and held it tightly before he passed out. The pair had made it to the camp site before Rick had fall sideway and off the horse.

Matilda was bucked off the horse, grunting as her body hit the ground. She stumbled to her feet, pulling up her now awake father and stumbled through the camp back to the main road. They were approaching the bridge before her father collapsed again.

She caught him, holding his head in her hands and tears fell from her eyes as she looked down at her father's wound. It was bleeding heavily.

"C'mon, dad. We gotta do it together. You and me. Wake up, dad, please." Matilda cried, her eyes darted towards the incoming herds. "Wake up! Dad, wake up!"

Her father snapped his eyes open, looking up at her before pushing himself to his feet. The father and daughter walked across the almost built bridge.

"No. No. It gonna hold." Rick mumbled. "I can't. I can't."

A Walker went to grab Rick from behind from an arrow shot it. The father and daughter looked towards the open area below the bridge and saw Daryl, holding his crossbow. Their family stopped behind him, before they hurried towards the other side of the bridge.

"No, don't do it, not for me, not for us." Her father said shaking his head. "It's too many."

Matilda stared at her husband, who was holding their son back as the boy tried getting to her. She signed towards her boys an 'I love you' before stepping forwards her father who had his gun raised.

She placed her hand on top of his, her eyes looked towards her husband and son before whispering. "It's you and me forever."

Her father says something before pulling the tigger.

Max watched in horror as the bridge exploded with his mom and grandfather on it. He broke out of his dad's arms and collapsed on the ground.

"Mom!"

He sobbed loudly as his dad picked him up and took him away.