Ellie Dixon

Frozen

Four days it took us to walk to Alexandria. By "walk" I mean we were borderline running. We needed to get to those kids. We only took breaks to eat animals we hunted, very quickly cooked and ate on the move. Finally though, we were in the trees looking at what was Alexandria. Not so far over was a camp where people were working on what looked like tracks. We couldn't get close enough, but we assumed some of our people where there. It's not like we didn't care, but we wanted to priorities getting the children first. I was worried about my whole family, about everyone from our communities, but they can all take care of themselves. I trust them enough to know that they can. It felt like mine, Sophia and Carl's job to save the children.

"We'll have to go in at night." Carl stated.

"I don't think I can wait that long." I responded.

"How do you suggest we break in sooner?" Sophia asked, genuienly. She wanted to get the kids back too.

I noticed that every now and again, a single soldier would leave the building site to do a perimeter check of Alexandria. They didn't do it very well though since they hadn't spotted me or my siblings. "We play dress up." I grinned.

"I think she's finally lost her mind." Carl pointed out.

"Just trust me, Nick Fury." I responded.

I watched as a soldier I knew was a woman walked into the forest. I followed behind her, before sneaking up on her with Carl and Sophia. He snatched gun, Sophia ripped the mask from her head and I pushed her exposed head roughly into a tree so she was knocked out. Silent. Not a single guard heard our take down. "You shouldn't go in alone." Sophia told me.

"Just do the same to the next guard and argue about who gets to follow up. I can't leave those kids in there alone for any longer. They must be terrified." I responded, starting to take the guard uniform off of her.

She was wearing a tight black tank and tight black leggings underneath her uniform. Carl made a gag out of leaves to keep her silent for when she woke up, and was planning on holding her at gun point. We didn't want to kill her because we didn't know if all the guards were evil. Anyways, she was a little bigger than me so I didn't need to take off any layers to get into the uniform. I was thankful because being in my underwear in that thing didn't sound pleasant. 

"Be safe." Sophia told me.

I nodded at her. "And the both of you. If shit hits the fan just run and hide. I'll get the kids out."

"Good luck, Ron Weasley." Carl commented.

I smiled, and let out a shaky breath before putting my helmet on. I turned on my heel before walking back over to the camp. I didn't walk into it though, I walked through the gates of Alexandria. Apparently I hadn't been there in over a year, but it only felt like a couple weeks that I was leaving in that RV.

The helmet narrowed my peripheral but I quickly adapted. I walked like I had purpose and training. I made myself look confident. I didn't make it obvious that I was scanning the place. There weren't many guards in Alexandria, most of them on the building site. I practically held my breath when I noticed a guard walking out of my house. He had a plates which were mostly empty. When he passed me I noticed that one of the plates had the crusts cut off the sandwiches and they were arranged to look like the boarder of the plate. It was a weird little thing RJ always did with the crusts.

I silently entered the house and was about to go upstairs when I heard a man and a woman in the living room. "The outpost has had a couple problems with the prisoner again." The man said.

"Is it true?" The woman asked

"Is what true?" The first questioned.

"That he's Carl father?" She pushed.

"Dunno. Could be. When me and Carl were on patrol together? He wouldn't shut up about his father the great Rick Grimes. They're all just stories though." The man chuckled. 

I was frozen. It couldn't be. Rick was dead. I watched him die. I killed him. No. It's not possible. If I got my hopes up, how would I save Hershel, RJ and Coco? I couldn't waver my mission. The man nodded at me before walking out of the house but the woman stayed in the living room. She began talking to me. She stood by the coffee table which had a map over it. "Hey, you taking over? I didn't think my shift was over yet."

I shouldn't waver my mission. "It's not." I stated, walking towards her. "Just got fed up of dealing with all the men." 

She chuckled. "I hear that."

"So... Rick Grimes is in the outpost?" I asked.

"You hear the stories too?" She pushed.

"Uh huh." I nodded. Pretending I wasn't there for like... All of them. "I'm new, where is the outpost?"

"Welcome to the team." She said, looking down to the map. Before pointing to where it had been circled in red. "Right there."

Looked about fifty miles out West. "Is that the only outpost we have?"

"Apart from Alexandria and Oceanside? Yea." She nodded.

"I'm gonna go check on the kids upstairs. Make sure they're okay." I responded.

"Alright." She shrugged.

I left the room. My chest was tight and I fought off tears in my eyes. "Don't get your hopes up. Rick is dead. You killed him." I muttered to myself. "You're not allowed to have hope after what you did. He's dead, Ellie. That's on you. You're being delusional." 

I checked all the rooms but they weren't in any until the last one. Sophia's room. They looked scared when I entered, but I closed the door behind me and took off my mask. "Ellie?" RJ smiled, bolting towards me.

"You gotta keep your voices down." I told them when RJ wrapped his arms around me.

"Thank you." Hershel cried, also running towards me. I kneeled down and let both boys hug me as they cried.

"Where's Coco?" I asked them.

RJ pulled back to talk. "They took her on the first day. We don't know where she is."

"Damnit." I rubbed my eyes.

"Is she gonna be okay?" Hershel asked, also pulling back.

"She will be. Or there's gonna be hell to pay." I muttered to myself. Not meaning to say it out loud. "Uh... I mean. Yes, she's fine."

"Can we go now?" RJ asked.

"Yea, uhm- I can't sneak you out right now-" I started.

"Why not?" Hershel complained.

"I know you're scared, kiddo. But, I can't get you past those guards, okay? I'm not magic. I'm not like Santa." I shrugged.

"Santa's not real." RJ furrowed his eyebrows.

I scoffed. "Don't be stupid, RJ. Of course he is."

"Ellie, you don't have to keep up the gag. We both know he isn't real." Hershel crossed his arms over his chest.

"Well, you're both idiots who have no idea what they're talking about. So... I'm gonna go deal with my plan. You two sit tight and start writing apology letters to Santa to get back onto the nice list." I stood back up and put my helmet on. "See ya."

"Be safe, big one." RJ told me.

I ruffled his hair. "Always am, little one."