After the Storm [1]

4 • Betrayal

The cicadas were deafening that morning.
Or perhaps it was the silence of the survivors that allowed the trill to take center stage. The camp was on auto pilot: move the bodies, scrub your fingernails of blood, grieve, and repeat. Maeve worked with Glenn, T-Dog, Jim, and Daryl to ensure each corpse took a sharp object to their cranium before being piled up and burned. The smell was horrific, but eventually their noses grew used to the stench.

There were more campers dead than alive. Ed Peletier, Amy Harrison, and so many others that remained unknown to Maeve had perished in the attack. Luckily for them, their group for the most part had remained intact. No one but Carl and Sophia had slept, their mothers refusing to let the children leave their sides. Maeve had stood watch with T-Dog, Daryl, and Shane the majority of the night, waiting for a possible second wave. Rick had stayed with Lori and Carl in their tent, but no one questioned him for it. He needed the rest more than anyone.

Maeve went searching for her brother then, bidding Glenn some parting words. She found him at the top of a hill, walkie talkie in hand as he looked upon the haze that covered Atlanta. She listened to him for a moment before making herself known.

"Who's Morgan?" She asks as she approaches, kneeling down in the dirt beside her brother.

"Morgan is the reason I'm still alive. He found me when I woke from my coma. Explained to me how the world ended. He and his boy, they were to follow me to Atlanta. I'd hate for them to walk into the same death trap I did," he shakes his head solemnly, looking down at the old Walkie in his hand.

"Is this why you wanted to go back for the bag? To get the walkie?" She asks and he looks at her, a small smile on his face. Maeve could always read him like a book.

"Partially."

They journeyed back to camp side by side, talking between each other. Maeve reminisced about her time tied up in the nursing home, Rick told her more about his journey to Atlanta. Maeve found herself hoping for more time with her brother. It was the first time they'd occupied the same space for more than 48 hours since they were kids. Although the circumstances were less than ideal, she saw it as a bright side. When they rejoined the group they were greeted with a concerned Lori, her features knotted up with worry.

"What is it?" Maeve asks, her answer being a pointed look towards Andrea and her sister's body. Andrea had yet to move from Amy's side, and the camp was well aware that Amy could wake at any moment. A few people had tried to approach her, but the woman was unresponsive.

"She still won't move?" Rick asks, but the question was more of a statement. It was clear as they watched Andrea continue to stroke Amy's red stained honey blonde hair.

"She won't even talk to us. She's been there all night, what do we do?" Lori says in a hushed tone. The possibility of Amy hurting one of the living had them all on edge.

"Can't just leave Amy like that," Shane states the obvious as he approaches them. "We need to deal with it, same as the others."

The four of them, the four that had known each other since the beginning, since before, looked at each other with solemn expressions on their face. They knew what had to be done.