Ellie Dixon

Rain is Like Gold

We were walking, which is all we seemed to be doing these days. I looked back for my dad, but I couldn't see him. "He went looking for water, little one." Abraham said after spotting my confusion.

"If the others ask, tell them I went with him, big one." I instructed before walking into the forest.

"You sure that's safe?" Abraham questioned.

I nodded. "I know how to track him."

"Be careful." Noah warned me. I hadn't said a word to him before. Hadn't even made eye contact with him. I turned to him and just nodded with a small smile on my face. Maybe I should talk to the new guy.

It wasn't hard to find my dad, he'd only walked a couple minutes and his feet left rather large prints in the dirt. I could also smell the smoke. "I never did like the smell of cigarettes. Had to get used to them though. Pretty sure Isabella was an addict even though she claimed she wasn't." I told him as I sat next to him, eyeing the barn about fifty feet ahead of us. When I saw him I saw that he was wiping at his face, I saw the small burn mark on his hand. "You alright, daddy?"

"Fine, babe. Why you out here?" Dad responded.

I took his hand and looked at the small burn mark. "Why would you do this to yourself?"

Dad just stared at me with tears in his eyes. "I-... I don't know."

I kissed the burn mark gently before I pulled him into a hug. He instantly broke down. I had my arms wrapped around his neck, it was like he didn't have the strength to hug me back as he let his arms rest in front of him. I went up on my knees so he could rest his head on my chest as he cried. "It was my fault... If I didn't let them take Beth, if I stopped her from going back over to that cop... She'd still be alive." Dad cried.

"It's not your fault." I whispered.

"It is." Dad nodded.

"You can't blame yourself forever. You need to forgive yourself. You deserve to forgive yourself." I tried. "Man, I wish Sophia was here, she's better at comforting people."

Dad laughed quietly, pulling back from me and wiping his face again. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't-"

"Don't apologise. You're human. You can't be strong all the time."

"You're only ten. You don't deserve this crap." Dad shook his head.

"You don't deserve this crap. I remember how you were after Jacob came outta the barn... You can't save everyone, that's not how this world works." I tucked some of his greasy hair behind his ear which he often did for me when I was crying. The small gesture made a small smile grow on his face before he looked up to me.

"When did you get to be so smart?" He questioned.

I scoffed. "I ain't smart, but you are. I just hope one day you're smart enough to forgive yourself."

Dad leaned his head back against the tree. "I ever tell you that I love you?"

"Everyday." I laughed.

"It's still not enough." Dad smiled, just staring into my eyes. "I'm really proud of you."

I looked down, laughing away potential tears. "Don't make me cry, I hate it when I do that it's gross."

"It's gross?" Dad grinned.

"When I do it, yea. It's like my face sprung a leak." I shivered dramatically. 

Dad chuckled. "We better head back, darling." Dad stood up and gave me a hand up.

We made our way back to the road and found everyone standing in a cult like circle. "Cult of Chucky remix." I commented, announcing our arrival. 

When people stepped aside we saw them all staring at a bunch of bottles of water. Dad stood next to Sophia and put his arm around her shoulders before kissing her head. She looked a tad confused at the sudden gesture but just smiled up at him. "You're too young to have ever watched Chucky." Rick muttered, passing me a note.

"I do apologise, Mama Rick." I commented, reading the note which said from a friend. "Nope, I was wrong. This ain't Chucky... This is Pennywise the freaking clown."

"You're too young to have seen either of those movies." Rosita raised her eyebrows.

"What ya gonna do? Ground me?" I laughed causing her to try and hide a smile because that probably wouldn't have been good role model skills.  I looked around, trying to see if there was any sign of whoever left this.

"What else are we gonna do?" Tara asked.

"Not this." Rick shook his head. "We don't know who left it." Rick told everyone before looking at me. "The Pennywise theory isn't fool proof" I smiled to myself at Rick's comment as I stared at the water.

"If that's a trap we already happen to be in it." Eugene pointed out. "But I, for one, would like to think that it is indeed from a friend." He was desperately staring at the water.

"What if it isn't? And they put something in it?" Mum challenged.

Eugene walked towards the water and picked up a bottle. "Eugene?" Rosita questioned.

"What are you doing?" Tara asked.

"Call it insurance." Just as Eugene was about to drink the water, Abraham slapped it from his hand and it spilled onto the floor.

"Let the man be the guinea pig." I whispered to Carl who looked at me, licking his lips to try and remove the smile from his face. "You think I'm hilarious, don't you." I said just as quietly as my previous comment.

"I think you're mean." Carl raised his eyebrows with a smirk playing on his lips.

"I'm not mean... I'm just a strong believer of having somebody take one for the team. And, in this case if it happens to be the not so Eugenius, so be it." I shrugged, still whispering. 

Carl scoffed out a laugh putting his arm around my shoulders as I leaned into him, crossing my arms over my chest as we watched the sight unfold. "We can't." Rick said darkly to Eugene. Me and Carl hadn't been paying attention, so did we miss something? It's a strong possibility.

Just like that there was a sound from the sky. We all looked up as the Heavens opened and it started to rain. Mum laughed, there was a big smile on Sophia's face, I pulled away from Carl to just lay on the concrete with an open mouth. Rosita lay next to me, Tara next to her, Carl on the other side of me and Sophia lay next to him. Nobody else joined us on the floor, but they were missing out.

"I'm sorry, my lord." I heard Gabriel say.

"Everybody get the bags. Anything you can find." Rick ordered.

I begrudgingly moved as mum passed me my bag. I pulled out two empty water bottles that I kept on me. I opened them up and held them up to the sky so they could fill with rain water. It was clean and we were practically dying of thirst.

Thunder cracked as the happy rain soon turned into an angry storm brewing in the sky above our heads. "God?" I heard Gabriel question.

"Let's keep moving." Rick told us all.

Realisation took over my dad's face as he turned to Rick. "There's a barn."