ꜰᴏᴏʟ'ꜱ ᴍᴀᴛᴇ || ᴛᴡᴅ

085: ɢᴜɪʟᴛ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ʟɪᴠɪɴɢ

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When the snow fell, the Kingdom fell with it.

fire raged. Pipes broke. Walls followed. It just wasn't safe. And with the tragedy of the pikes, they were too broken to make miracles happen. 

Rachel went with a group of others to help move them to the Hilltop.

Danny stayed behind. As did Sami. With Rosita pregnant, Sami didn't want to leave her. And with how quiet Sami had been Danny wanted to stay with him.

People jumped at every walker. They struggled to come to decisions. Maggie stopped responding to letters.

Rachel walked beside Daryl, watching a group of walkers the people in the large group were worried about in the fields. They had three wagons of people, and about a dozen horses, more people walking. It was a lot, bound to attract walkers with sound alone.

"That them?" Alden looked at Lydia from atop his horse, referring to the walkers in the fields. "Your people watching us now, huh? Well, we followed their rules. Haven't they - ow!"

Rachel hit him in the calf, hard. "Back off."

He glared at her, then Lydia, but didn't say anything more.

"You don't have to protect me." Lydia said, as they walked alongside each other, Rachel pulling her red scarf higher around her face as the cold air burnt. "I know how they feel about me."

"Yeah, but . . . they can't be assholes." Rachel glanced at her. "Never stand for that, Lydia. "

"Just . . . I don't want to cause anymore problems."

"You haven't. Other people keep making problems."

Rachel didn't talk much on the trip. They came across two walkers, her and Daryl shooting them, but she froze before retrieving her arrow. Lydia was gone.

"Daryl, can you grab mine?"

"Yeah." He made his way over to the body.

Rachel saw a pair of footsteps leading into the woods, and followed them.

She found her, crouched by a walker, stuck in a frozen lake.

She was reaching her arm out to the walker to bite. 

To bite?

She understood it. She'd done that before, too.

"Lydia?"

She jumped, and looked at her, slowly pulling her arm away. There was a tear on her cheek.

"We need to get home." 

Lydia stood, and walked towards her, head down, then passed her, walking back to the road. 

Rachel followed.

As the group spoke of what to do, the storm coming in quickly, Rachel wondered what she should do. Should she tell Daryl about Lydia? Or was it one of those things you don't tell people. What had she really been trying to do? Rachel technically couldn't say for sure. Maybe she was just misreading it.

 It was a cold night. They spend a few hours in the Sanctuary, before taking off on foot, letting the horses go. They had to cross over a frozen river. Through Alpha's territory.

"I don't like this."  Rachel pulled her scarf over her head like a hood, the wind much stronger than before. "I don't like this."

"We'll be alright." Daryl put an arm over her, trying to quieten the wind with his body a little as he pulled her close. Sometimes it made her freak out. "We'll be home soon."