Solitude -> The Walking Dead

66

The shovel dug into the ground once again. I didn't know the right measures. This was my first time actually digging a proper grave. Never got to have one for Ryan. A fact that still haunts me.

I glanced at the tiny wrapped bundle. Someone had taken her from the house and made sure she was properly hidden away from view. I pushed the shovel into the ground and wiped the sweat dripping down my forehead.

An unexpected face found its way to me and my grave digging. Deanna approached the bundle with saddened eyes. I resisted the urge to tell her to get away from my niece.

She doesn't get to grieve her. Rhea was nothing to her. She held her at a party once and made a speech about the future generation. Well, I was now burying it. The future was cold and lifeless. Most importantly, it was lonely.

"I am very sorry for your loss, Josephine. To lose a child is unimaginable." She spoke to me.

As she said that, her eyes stared off into the distance. Her thoughts had probably wandered to her own dead kid. Aiden. Though he was a grown ass man who made terrible life choices.

I paused my digging. "She wasn't my child."

It seemed sily to correct her on her wording. But it mattered to me. She wasn't mine, she was my brother's. I didn't want to take credit for something that I didn't create. Nothing that innocent could come from me.

"Nonetheless. The pain is still there." Deanna remarked.

My chest ached as her words sunk in. I tried to ignore the slow build-up of emotion inside me. Deanna was right about one thing. The pain was still there. Some crying and sleep helped, but the loss of my niece still hangs in the air.

Maggie and Michonne came by to help with the burial while Deanna excused herself. Michonne took over my digging as I sat down on the grass. A pit formed in my stomach as the grave was almost finished.

"Do you want us to call Rick and the others? Maybe say a few words?" Maggie suggested.

What would be the point? Rhea hadn't even began to form a personality. She was a heavy sleeper and a fighter. That's all she got to be before she got taken away from our family.

Rick has been busy trying to keep watch in case the others return. I reassured him that I'd be okay on my own. And I meant it. The last thing we need right now is me falling apart. There's too much at stake.

"Too risky with all the walkers. This will do." I said.

Once Michonne was done with the grave, I got up on my feet and reached for my niece. The bundle was wrapped tight and I resisted the urge to remove it so I could see her. There wasn't much to see anymore, but I still longed for it.

I gently lowered her into the small hole in the ground. It was still too big for how small she was. My eyes stung and I cleared my throat before standing up again. Michonne handed me the shovel and I started burying her.

-----

"Is she awake?" I asked.

Denise looked up from a book she was reading. I watched blankly as she adjusted her glasses and nodded. She seemed to get nervous whenever I walked in to ask anything about my sister.

Though I don't understand why. There's been an influx of people coming through here. It's why they moved Dakota upstairs into a room of her own.

"Yeah, hasn't really said much though." Denise said.

My eyes narrowed. "And her injuries?"

In the commotion that occurred, I couldn't tell the extent of her wounds. Only that she was bleeding quite a bit. Maggie and I were able to get her to the infirmary before anything more serious happened.