Don't Get Dead | TWD | Volume 1

[35] Even Heroes Cry

Ace looked in the mirror, her eyes immediately tracking her bruises. They had faded, but the light purple colour under her skin was still clearly visible and painful. She reached a hand up and pressed her finger against the bruise, across the top of her cheek, wincing as she did so. It didn't hurt so much anymore, having almost been a week since she was beaten.

Instead of dwelling on what had happened, which she was sure she had been doing for over ten minutes at this point, she grabbed the brush that Lori left on the bathroom sink, using it to untangle the knots in her hair. She put her hair up in a loose ponytail at the bottom of her head and when she had finished changing, she left the bathroom for someone else to use.

Everyone else was downstairs, also getting ready for the long day ahead. Ace grabbed her brown coat that was hanging on the bannister at the bottom of the stairs, and pulled it over her shoulders, blocking the draft that had been coming in from the broken window in the kitchen.

She saw T-Dog sitting on one of the sofas beside Carol, tying up his boot's shoelaces. When Ace and a few others entered the room, he glanced up. "Can someone pass me that bottle?" T-Dog asked the group, pointing to a water bottle on a table at the other wall.

Ace was already on her way past when he asked for it, so she grabbed the bottle and walked across the room to hand it to him, "Here, T."

T-Dog, with the bottle in his hand, blinked a few times, staring at her like she just shot a dog, "What did you say?"

"What?" Ace frowned.

T-Dog and Carol shared a look, before he returned his gaze back to Ace, "You just called me T," he accused pointedly.

"Oh . . ." Ace was quiet for a second, thinking about what she had said, before giving a small shrug, "guess I did."

Ace didn't like that T-Dog had pointed it out, and he could see in her eyes that he should probably stop while he was ahead. If this had happened on any normal day, he would never let her live it down, but seeing as that was the first thing he'd actually heard her say in days, he didn't want to say anything else that would put her back in her shell.

Instead, he decided to say nothing on the matter, and nothing else until finally Rick entered the room.

That was when T-Dog stood up and asked, "When are we starting this thing?"

"When Glenn and Daryl get back," Rick answered. "They went out to check the perimeter, to see if there's any breaches in the fence. Something like that is gonna be difficult to keep in check."

"Hey, I'm willing to do anything for this place," T-Dog said.

"Me too," Carol agreed.

The door opened, alerting the group that Glenn and Daryl had returned. They entered together, Glenn first with Daryl closing the door behind them. Both of them looked impressed, Ace noticed.

"The fence is secure the whole way around," Glenn said as he entered the house.

Rick seemed happy with that news, Ace could tell by the big smile on his face, "Looks like something is finally going our way."

Daryl nodded in agreement, "There was one of those electrical transformer buildings but that's inside the fence. No one can climb up that from the outside."

"Then I guess we can start searching," Rick said, and turned to face the rest of the group. "Today's the fun part. We're going to split into groups and search through all these houses, or as many as we can. We're looking for canned goods, supplies, first aid kids, and more importantly, making sure this place is secure and there aren't any houseguests hiding inside like there was in this one."