Spider Monkey

Chapter Forty - Five - Word Of The Father

Hedley was walking down the street, just finished his visit with Judith. She was such a happy baby, babbling and crawling about in curiosity. She was napping at the moment, with Carl keeping close to her crib. He decided to go for a walk, stretching his legs as he spent most of the day sitting cross legged on the ground, playing with Judith.

As he went through the village, he noticed Gabriel knocking on Deanna's door.

She answered, "Father Gabriel, what is it?"

"I need to speak with you. Privately." He sounded desperate.

"All right. Come in."

Hedley frowned. He's never really liked Gabriel. Sensing dishonesty and weakness from the man and the interaction he'd just witnessed made him even more distrustful. He decided to investigate. He saw an open window and took off his crossbow and silently climbed in. He was in an office and the door was open. He went slowly to the opening and peered in, seeing Gabriel and Deanna standing in the hallways.

"Your community, you say it's not a paradise, but it is. I'm grateful to be here. I am. But you made a mistake letting in the others."

Deanna frowned, "How so?"

"Rick, his group, they're not good people." The words made Hedley's blood burn with rage, "They've done things. They've done unspeakable things."

"To make it out there as long as they did, they must have done things. Rick said as much. They survived. That's what makes them assets."

"You're wrong. They can't be trusted. They're dangerous. You may believe that they did what they had to do, that they were afraid and so they- The day will come - when they'll put their own lives before yours and everyone else's and they will destroy everything you have here, everything you're working so hard to build."

"Why are you just now coming to me with this?"

"Satan, he disguises himself as the angel of light. His servants are the false apostles of righteousness. They don't deserve this. They don't deserve paradise."

Hedley decided to let himself be known and stepped out from his hiding spot, eyes of fury on Gabriel. The adults spot him and Deanna looked sympathetic while Gabriel... looked damn right terrified.

"Hedley." Deanna went to him but the boy's gaze was firmly on the father. "How long-"

Hedley stormed to Gabriel, finger pointing, lips moving to say everything he wanted to but no words came. He let out a frustrated growl before pulling out his flipbook. He aggressively wrote down something then showed it to both the father and Deanna.

'Why don't you tell Deanna what you did to your people before you decide to judge mine?'

Deanna raised an eyebrow at Gabriel.

The man stuttered a bit, "T-That's not-"

Hedley wrote down more. 'We saved you. We fed you. We protected you. We were the ones who brought you here.'

He put his head down but Hedley wasn't finished, he turned the page of his flipbook and growled. 'Next time you want our help, we'll leave you to rot'. He tore out the page, slammed it against Gabriel's chest before storming out the house, collecting his crossbow on the way, grumbling in anger.

"Hedley!" Deanna called for him to stop.

Hedley did, turning to face the woman who had run after him. He had a look of confusion on his face, silently asking what she wanted.

"I understand that Gabriel's words must've hurt and It was very good of you to stand up for your family."

Hedley nodded, still fuming.

"Do you know why he would say such things?"

Hedley thought for a moment, then wrote down something and gave it to her before running off, not wanting to talk anymore.

Deanna watched him go before looking down at the note in her hand.

'He thinks that thing around his neck blinds him'.

***

That night, Pete killed Reg - Deanna's husband - and Rick killed Pete under the orders of a grieving Deanna.

The next day, Daryl, Glenn, Rick and a bunch of the group went out of Alexandria to work on something important.

That left Carl and Hedley walking down the street, Carl pushing a stroller with Judith cooing inside.

"I can't believe you've never seen Star Wars!" Carl exclaimed, shaking his head in false fury, "It's an outrage."

Hedley chuckled, rolling his eyes, now understanding the sarcasm after Carl explained, "I-I'm sorry."

"You should be!" Carl laughed, "I mean they're a classic. Yoda, Obi, Luke. You're missing out!"

Hedley took out his flipbook, his writing messy due to giggling. 'What's it about?'

"Want me to run down the plot?"

Hedley nodded.

"There's a boy called Luke. He lived as a slave all his life, then shit happens. He saves a girl, kisses the girl, turns out the girl is his sister - then he goes to a swamp and trains to be a good fighter. He then can move things with his mind. He then finds out his dad - who he thought was dead - was alive and in fact the villain of the story. He then kills his dad, blows up a spaceship, then lives happily ever after with his sister, his sister's boyfriend, two robots and a bigfoot."

Hedley's mouth hung open in shock and disbelief. He was so confused yet so intrigued.

"And that's only the main trilogy. The prequel-"

"Carl?" A voice interrupted them. The boys turned and saw Gabriel.

Hedley reached for his knife but Carl quickly stopped him.

"Not here." He then looked at the father, "What?"

"You were told what I said about your group. I understand your anger."

"What do you want?" Carl asked, sighing heavily.

"It was about me, not you or your group. I know that now. I want to help. You tried to teach me back at my church. But I'm ready to learn now."

Hedley scoffed while Carl said, "I think you need to tell everybody."

Gabriel nodded, "Yeah, I think you're right. And Hedley, I'm sorry for what I said. I know you think less of me but please... give me a chance to prove myself."

The boys glanced at one another. Hedley shook his head and went to walk. Carl followed but called back to Gabriel, "Come by around 3:00. We'll start with the machete."

Hedley twisted round fast, eyebrow raised, arms crossed.

"Holding grudges won't help any of us, Hedley."

Hedley frowned, shaking his head once more. Judith babbled in her seat, gaining the teens' attention. They gave her a smile.

"I think she's getting sleepy. Must be her naptime."

Hedley agreed with a nod. As they went to Carol's place, the air turned cold - not in temperature but intuition.

Screaming was heard and everyone was running to safety.

"What's going on?!" Carl yelled, looking about.

Carol opened the door, gun in hand, "Get in and lock the doors. Keep Judith safe and stay together!" Merle came stumbling out after Carol, his own gun at the ready.

"What's happening?" Carl demanded as Hedley lifted up Judith.

"Intruders." Carol explained, quickly.

"Get inside! Now!" Merle ordered the kids then cocked his gun, "They messed with the wrong town!"