Waiting For the End || Blake Dixon Book One

Chapter 15 ||"This isn't a democracy any more."

"Dale could get under your skin. He sure got under mine, because he wasn't afraid to say exactly what he thought, how he felt. That kind of honesty is rare and brave." Blake stared at the freshly dug grave, everyone was there even Beth. She was rubbing her hand up and down Blake's back in an attempt to comfort her. Blake would have appreciated it more if she wasn't so lost in her head. She fiddled with the watch that sat heavily on her wrist thinking back to the conversation she had with Dale just the day before. He had been happy, proud of her and the way she stood up for Randall. But now he was gone, torn apart by a walker.

"Whenever I'd make a decision, I'd look at Dale. He'd be looking back at me with that look he had. We've all seen it one time or another. I couldn't always read him, but he could read us. He saw people for who they were. He knew things about us, the truth, who we really are. In the end, he was talking about losing our humanity. He said this group was broken. The best way to honor him is to unbreak it. Set aside our differences and pull together, stop feeling sorry for ourselves and take control of our lives, our safety... Our future. We're not broken. We're gonna prove him wrong. From now on we're gonna do it his way. That is how we honor Dale." Rick finished looking around at everyone in the group, Blake had run out of tears a while ago. Sometime while she had been digging Dale's grave.

Rick was right, everything she did from now on would be to honor him, she would try her very best to be the person that he thought she could be. The group dispersed, but Blake lingered. Beth stayed at her side as everyone scattered. Once it was just them Blake pulled the man's bucket hat out of her back pocket. She knelt down and sat the hat on top of the grave, she pinned it down with one of the rocks so it wouldn't fly away. Then with one final pat she stood up and left the graveyard that they had started.

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It had been decided that it would be safer for everyone to move into the house, especially with winter moving in and the air getting colder. Blake took that to mean that Hershel was letting them stay. Blake was glad, she didn't want to say goodbye to the Greene farm or the youngest Greene just yet. She wasn't so sure of being packed into the house with fourteen other people, but if it meant she didn't have to freeze her ass off in a tent in the middle of winter she would take it.

"Gonna be tight, 14 people in one house," Rick commented as they stood talking to Hershel.

Don't worry about that. With the swamp hardening, the creek drying up..." Hershel replied.

"With 50 head of cattle on the property, we might as well be ringing a damn dinner bell," Maggie added. Beth clutched to Blake's hand as they stood to the side waiting for orders on what to do.

"She's right. We should've moved you in a while ago," Hershel agreed.

"All right, let's move the vehicles near each of the doors facing out toward the road." Rick said, Blake squeezed Beth's hand and turned to help start packing everything up. Rick kept barking out orders but Blake already knew she would be told to help move into the house. Rick still thought she was a kid, he wasn't going to give her anything too crazy to do.

"You got that?" Blake asked as she handed Beth a bag. The girl hummed out in confirmation and Blake sent her a small smile, filling her own arms with stuff before taking off up to the house trailing behind Maggie.

"You want to bring your stuff up to my room?" Beth asked her once they got up to the house.

"Nah, my old man needs someone to keep an eye on him. I'll be good downstairs," Blake answered. "But thank you." She plopped a kiss to the top of Beth's head before moving to claim a corner of the living room for her and her dad. Blake felt bad for saying no, but they had yet to sit down and talk about what was going on between them and she didn't want things to get awkward. Especially not with Hershel, she didn't want to get on the man's bad side for sleeping in his daughter's room.