The Strongest Survivor

Untied Shoelaces

Before anyone could answer Artemis's original question more groaning was heard from inside the barn and so Artemis made her way to the front of the others and latched her bow before whistling making the groaning become louder so she knew that the walker was coming for her but as soon as the walker left the barn Artemis felt like she couldn't breathe, she hoped that she would wake up, she felt the tears stinging her eyes and she knew that she wouldn't be able to let the arrow go, she put the bow down and walked forward a step as she looked at the walker, it had multiple bites, one on the neck, the shoulder, the forearm, the leg, she dropped her bow as she started crying, the walker now at the barn door as she shook her head "No... Please no..." She said as she looked at the familiar afro tucked under Athena's old hat, and then looked at the walkers feet, he only had one shoe with the laces untied "Bruno!" She cried before running forward but one of them men, the one who she assumed was Rick grabbed her before she could reach the small boy who was now a walker, "NOOOO BRUNO!" She was screaming at the top of her lungs and the Greene family felt awful knowing that this was going to cause the girl so much pain, Maggie was holding Beth close as Hershel had his hand on her shoulder and Otis was hugging Patricia whilst Jimmy was standing in shock, one of the other men with no hair walked up at shot Bruno causing Artemis to scream and Rick behind her to hold her tighter but she pushed away from him and ran over to Bruno dropping down at his side, Sophia was sobbing in her mothers arms and another little boy who was around Artemis's age was also crying in his mothers arms so she assumed that was Carl, she gently picked up Bruno's head and sat it in her lap, she was crying her heart out and everyone there felt bad for her, she was sobbing out appologies as she held the boys body close to her own, Beth had pulled away from Maggie and made her own way over looking at the bodies for a particular person "Momma.." She cried as she found the body she was looking for and now Artemis realised where everyone from the farm had gone and her blood ran cold before a question appeared in her mind 'How long has Bruno been in this barn?' she heard Beth scream and she quickly looked to her side to see the reanimated Annette grabbing Beth so before anyone else could react she grabbed her hunting knife and plunged it into the side of Annette's head which made Beth fall back as the others ran up, Daryl seemed to have gotten himself together as he was holding Athena tightly in his arms and now approached Artemis who was standing with shaky hands still clutching her hunting knife, Spirit was just standing waiting for Artemis to give him an instruction "Artie baby, it's me daddy, ya okay?" Daryl asks crouching down in front of Artemis with Athena now by his side and Artemis dropped her knife to the ground before falling forward into her fathers arms sobbing and he oicked her up holding her tightly with one arm as he took Athena's hand with the other and he began to move away with his girls knowing that Artemis wouldn't want everyone watching her as she cried. He carried his girls all the way back up to the farm house and sat on the swinging chair on the porch with Artemis on his lap and Athena nuzzling in at his side, they used to do this at their cabin because Daryl and Merle had built them a porch swing because they weren't able to afford one with how expensive they could be and sometimes when the girls were feelig overstimulated or they had had a long day they would go and swing for a while and Daryl would know that his girls wanted their space for a while, sometimes he would take them a blanket if it was cold. "Yer okay baby daddy's here, an I ain' ever leavin you again, either a' you." He says with his arms around his girls and Artemis just quietly cried and scratched at her arm which Daryl was quick to stop by moving her hand to his shirt to stop her scratching herself, it always worried Daryl because he hated the fact they would scratch themselves when they couldn't verbally explain what was wrong.

"It's all ma fault... I shoulda protcted 'im more... I shoulda taught him better... I shoulda..." She started crying again and Daryl could see the Greene family heading back up as Otis and Patricia lead Spirit back to the other horses. The bald man who had shot Bruno was shouting at them all "Why were they there?! why was that little boy there?" The bald man was shouting, "Otis put those people in the barn." Hershel says as Otis and Particia start heading back over "He found Bruno after Artemis had left to look for him. We thought we were doing what was best!" Hershel says and the bald man scoffs "You expect me to believe that?" he says and Rick steps between them as the man gets in Hershels face "Do I look like an idiot?" The bald man says and Rick tries to difuse the situation "Shane, hey hey hey." Rick says and that gves Artemis a name for the bald man "I don't care what you believe!" Hershel shouted and both girls cover their ears and Daryl puts his hand on their heads and they both bury their faces in his cut off flannel and Maggie looks over at the girls and sighs, she knew sometimes the girls didn't like arguements because it reminded them of their father, the arguement was escalating and Shane got into Hershel's face and so Maggie slapped him and Hershel demanded everyone off his land before they all went inside the farm house but Hershel came back outside a few minutes after the other group had all left and came over to the three Dixons on the porch swing and looked down at the girls who weren't covering their ears anymore "Artemis, sweetheart are you alright?" He knew it was probably a stupid question to ask but he wanted to check if she was okay or not "Did you know?" was the only thing that Artemis said, she said it without looking towards him at all, and he sighed and looked down at his feet "I'm not going to lie to you Artemis because I don't believe that to be fair to you, Otis told me last night, he said he found Bruno the morning after you headed out to find him and he brought him back but by then he had already got all those bites on him and so Otis put him in the barn with the others and the next day he shot that boy by accident." Hershel said and Artemis took a shaky breath and nodded her head before she got off her father and passed Hershel without a word and she headed to the stables to get her bags from Spirit and she took out Bruno's shoe that she found and walked back down to the barn where all the bodies were still lying and she approached Bruno again and kneeled down, she slipped his shoe on and she started crying again, it was just her at the barn right now "I'm so sorry Bruno, I should've been there for you, I should've saved you... I thought I taught you how to tie those laces huh?" She laughs with tears still running down her face, with shaky hands she tied his laces on both of his shoes and then just sat holding him until she noticed a shadow looming over her and she turned to see a tall bald man standing over her "You doin' okay kid? We're uh... moving everybody you want us to move him?" The man says trying to be sensitive to the girl and she looks down at Bruno and nods her head and so he stepped forward and gently picked the boy up, the man carried him over to the truck with the others and Artemis followed behind him "Thank you..." She mumbled and he shook his head "it's okay kid, the names Theodore Douglas but everyone calls me T-Dog." He says introducing himself to her and she tries to give him a genuine smile but it doesn't really work " 'm Artemis, people call me Artie." She mumbles pulling on her fingers and scratching at her wrist and T-Dog nods giving her a smile, "Nice ta meet ya Artie." T-Dog says walking away to help move more bodies and Artemis nods her head at him in response before she goes off on a walk, she sees her sister in the man Ricks arms and she can see how happy the man looks, she decides that she should go and thank him for looking after her little sister so she sighs and scratches at her arm a little bit before taking a deep breath and walking up towards the others, she hears her little sister's giggling before she even gets there and she sees Rick holding Athena's toy Clucky whilst speaking in a stupid voice "Artie!" Athena smiles at her sister as she approaches and Rick turns around with a friendly smile.