We're The Ones Who Live | The Walking Dead (2)

Part 16 -The Calm Before

"Aunt CJ... CJ, wake up!"

CJ's eyes opened suddenly, and a sharp twinge went through her head from the hit. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she assessed her surroundings. As she tried to sit up, she found her hands to be tied together behind her back and struggled as she managed to sit on her knees.

Her eyes frantically scanned the space she was in. It was almost pitch black, and she couldn't see a thing. She wondered how long she'd been out for, but it can't have been more than a few hours. But that didn't alarm her. What did scare her was when her eyes found the person who had been calling out to her, sitting right by her side.

"Henry?" She could barely see him through the darkness, but the thin trail of moonlight coming through the roof of wherever they had been taken was enough for her to see his face. "Where the hell are we?"

"I-I don't know," Henry stuttered, panicking. "I went down to the basement to check on the power and next thing I know, I woke up here. I can hardly see."

"It's the Whisperers," CJ mumbled quietly. "They got inside the walls. I don't know how, but..."

"CJ? Henry? That you?"

CJ and Henry squinted their eyes through the darkness, trying to find the voice.

"Tara?" Henry called.

"Y-yeah, it's me," Tara replied shakily. "What the fuck is this?"

Before CJ or Henry could answer, they heard the shuffling of footsteps nearby, and a light appeared at a doorway. The masked person slowly made their way through the middle of the space and hung the lantern up on a chain hanging from the ceiling, creating enough light for the others to see where they were.

Scanning the space, CJ realised they were in a barn or a stable of some kind. There was odd bits of hay and straw littered all over the wooden floors, and each end of the small space was open.

"Hey!" Tara yelled at the masked person. "Hey, tell us where we are, now!"

The masked figure slowly turned to Tara and knelt down in front of her. They brough their finger to their lips and shushed her, before getting up and walking along the space. As they walked, they kicked their foot out, earning groans or mumbles from the people they were kicking. The person left once everyone started to stir in their sleep, leaving the light hanging in the middle of the barn.

In the confusion of waking up, CJ hadn't even noticed the other people lying on the ground, bound the same way as she, Tara and Henry were. Her heartrate picked up so much, she could hear it echoing in her ears. The pain of her broken ribs was screaming at her, but she ignored it as she looked at tall the people she had to try and protect from whatever was happening.

There was one of Negan's old wives, Frankie. The two kids from the Hilltop; Addy and Rodney. The gardener from the Hilltop, Tammy-Rose. They were people CJ didn't know all that well, but she knew them enough to know she needed to protect them.

Then there was Siddiq, and he caught CJ's eye the second he woke up. Part of her felt guilty for him being taken. He was only in the infirmary because he was helping her. The next person to wake up made CJ shake her head, dreading what this was all about. Enid sat up and started pulling on her binds, her eyes scanning the room frantically.

"W-what the hell?" she gasped.

"Tara, what's happening?" Tammy-Rose whimpered, still looking to her leader for help.

"I have no clue," Tara panicked. "That guy just left the light and walked out."

"Probably telling the others that we're awake," CJ realised. The others began panicking and asking unanswerable questions as she tried to rack her brain for a plan.