Push and Pull || Maggie Greene

Nebraska

Trigger: Mentions of threatening to SA someone. 

The apocalypse showed no mercy to anyone, not even a child. Watching Sophia hit the floor, that fact was more apparent than ever. I was so convinced we would find her alive that it would be different this time. I felt cursed; any child I go looking for ends up dead. 

I remember when I got assigned to search for Tommy. He was around Sophia's age, maybe a little younger. His mother was in hysterics as she tried to tell us any information she could. She believed his dad had taken him and gave us his house number. We spent days watching the house. The father somehow kept evading us, but eventually, we got a call from the neighbors about weird activity going on in the father's backyard.

We managed to get a search warrant, and when we got into the backyard, the father came out, a machete in his hand. Luckily, he was clearly drunk, so Shane, who had come with me on the call, and another officer managed to subdue him quickly. 

That was when I smelled something foul and followed it to a freshly covered hole. I knew what I would find, and with every bit of dirt removed from the spot, I felt more and more like I was going to pass out. 

After that night, I was messed up. I almost quit being an officer, but Rick and Shane were there for me, and they helped me through it. Carl and Lori were also a big help; they let me stay with them for a few days afterward. It took me a long time to cope with it, but thanks to them I managed to get through it.

I was just so sick of losing people, and if I could put myself in any of their places, I would do so in a heartbeat. I heard Daryl trying to comfort Carol behind me, and I could not even imagine what she felt right now. Seeing your own child as one of those things...I don't know if I could even keep going after that. 

I turned around just as Carol shoved him off of her, and she hurried away from all of us. I heard Beth crying, and she started walking towards the dead bodies, pushing right past Rick. She dropped down next to the corpse of a woman, pushing the walker off that was on top. As she pushed it over, the walker sprung to life and grabbed her. 

"Shit," I shouted, and we all rushed to try and separate them. I grabbed the walker's arms and pulled as hard as I could, eventually separating the two. T-Dog then came in, and I fell backward as he started to stomp the walker's head in.

That didn't work, and he backed up; I took hold of the walker's arms once more and pulled it into a sitting position. Thankfully, Andrea came in with a pickax, and the walker fell limp once it pierced through its skull.

I let the walker drop, and I looked at Beth, who was in her father's arms, and that's when I realized that this must have been Beth's mother; at that, I looked at Maggie as that meant this was her stepmother. I didn't know what to say as the family started to walk back towards their home, all holding each other tight. I grabbed the gun I was using, and  we began to follow them, and of course, Shane couldn't help but run his mouth.

"We've been out...We've been combing these woods looking for her, and she was in there all along? You knew," He accused them, and my eyes narrowed at the back of his head. "Leave us alone," Maggie ordered, but when was Shane ever one to listen? 

"Hey Shane, just stop, man," Rick says and grabs him, but Shane shrugs him off. "Get your hands off me," He says harshly to my brother before turning his sights back on Hershel. "You knew, and you kept it from us," Shane kept accusing. 

"I didn't know," Hershel told him meekly, and I truly believed he didn't know. "That's Bullshit, I think y'all knew" Shane clearly did not share my thoughts. 

"We didn't know!" Maggie tells him, sending a fierce glare his way. "Why was she there?!" Shane's voice was like a knife as he kept harassing them. "Otis put those people in the barn; maybe he found her and put her there before he was killed," Hershel tried to reason with Shane. Shane scoffed, "You expect me to believe that? Do I look like an idiot?"