𝐑𝐞𝐛𝐞𝐥《 𝘋𝘢𝘳𝘺𝘭 𝘋𝘪𝘹𝘰𝘯 》

n i n e// K I L L E R

Smith's hands gripped and held the woman down on the stretcher and talked her through the seizure in hope that she was conscious and following her instructions. Hershel entered the room, immediatly followed by a terrorised Caleb. Both of them mimicked the woman that stood before them, hands on Evie's body. 
She stopped moving uncontrollably and all six hands let their grip go. Staying silent, they patiently waited for reaction... But there wasn't any. Smith's fingers connected with Evie's wrist hesitantly, fearfully. Her two fingers felt nothing beneath them; there was no pulse. 
Her facial expression alarmed Caleb who took the woman's wrists to examine it himself. Still not believing himself, he dropped his head on her chest in search for a beat, any beat, just one. But not even that was provided to him. He gulped and spoke with only his eyes, his voice betraying him. Hershel sighed and brushed his face while Smith stood petrified, fear, regret and all things bad took over her. 

"What happened? She was stable." Rick questioned, Caleb answered quietly even though they were in the library where only books could hear them.
"We still don't know."
I do. She thought.
Daryl sat in his almost assigned seat, right ankle on his left knee with his index finger brushing up and down his small chin beard. His bright blue eyes focused on one thing and one thing only; Smith. Who sat in her, also, usual seat right beside him while, with a desolated expression, stared into the floor as if she could see a movie playing on it. Eyebrows bent, she looked like if you pinched her she would break into pieces, standing there like that... like a porcelain piece.
"Some surgeries don't go well, especially with the limited resources we have here. Sometimes there's just nothing left to do."
Rick picked violently at the skin on his fingers. "What do we tell Helena?"
"The truth." Hershel replied. 
Smith pushed to stand on her feet and stomped her way out.

"What are you doing?" Hershel's voice echoed through the room of stretchers.
"God! I- What are you doing here?"
"I was looking for you. We have to move her. Prepare her body for--"
"Have you told Helena?"
"Yes."
"And?"
He hesitated. "Caleb's on his way. We were thinking about moving her--"
"Hershel." She gazed him. About to demand answers of him, Smith was interrupted by Caleb.
"Hershel. Smith. You're already here? Good I thought we-"
"Not just yet." She turned her head toward the body. "I need to do something."
"Smith, we have to at least make sure she doesn't turn."
"No."
At the prison, they had this policy that whenever someone passed away and they were forced to stab their brain so they wouldn't come back, it was never a stab on the forehead. It always had to be on the base of the skull, so no wound could be seen at the burial. 
That excluded the attack on cellblock D, of course, where they hadn't had a choice but shoot at whichever angle they could.
"I need to do an autopsy."
"What?" The two men questioned in unison. 
"Smith, we don't have the resources an autopsy requires."
"I know. I just need to see something. Close the door, please." She kneeled in front of the body.

"Hey." Daryl greeted quietly and Carol gave him a smile in return. "What the hell happened last night?"
He only knew Evie was dead. But he didn't know why Smith was so angry or why she was covered in blood and pale the night before.
"A horror movie, that's what happened. That girl had razor wire inside of her brain. I don't even know how Smith managed to stabilize her."
"What'd she do?" He questioned surprised. 
"She took it out. I got there and her brain was exposed, it was--" Carol controlled her reaction at the images. "Smith was on the floor of that cell for five hours and she did save Evie. What happened after wasn't her fault."
Daryl looked down, fidgeting his hands. While she had been on a cell floor taking wire out of somebody's brain he had been avoiding going inside so as not to see her. Like a child. He felt so embarrassed at that moment. 
"That why she called Maggie for help?"
"Yeah."
"Lucky you came by."
"I didn't do anything. I held down a bucket and got her water after she gave half her blood."
Oh. That's why she was pale as a ghost.