"I'm sorry we tried to stop you," I tell Hershel. "You going in there.. you were right. You saved a lot of lives by making them hold out longer."
"Sometimes you just gotta teach kids now what respect is," he says with a laugh. "You're all right, darlin'. I'm just glad I was able to pull my weight."
"How's Glenn doing?" Michonne wonders.
"He's stable. We were able to even take the tube out of him. Maggie is still with him, but she'll get Bob in case anything happens," he informs.
"Sasha?" I ask.
"Already up walking around like a mad woman," he laughs again.
"Just a woman," Michonne deflects. "It's what we do."
"Pussy Power-"
"Hyejin," Hershel scolds.
Michonne laughs and I hold my hands up in surrender after we drop another body on the pile.
"You ever gonna take that mask off?" Michonne asks, motioning to my face mask.
"Nope," I deny. "Traumatized. I'm gonna live in this thing from now on."
"All this time fighting the dead, you forget what the world and nature are capable of," Hershel remarks.
The words make a pang of hurt go through my chest.
"Maggie said something like that," I reveal. "I wondered where she got it from."
I hop onto the trailer and look up at the sky.
"Kids," Michone comments. "They are mirrors of their parents."
"Lord save us all by the time Woojin is four," Hershel jokes.
I beam at the thought. "He's already learning how to load a gun. He's a badass, man."
"Mine was too soft for all that," Michonne says.
I hesitate when picking up the next body. "What?"
She looks up at me and shrugs. "I had a son."
"This is the first I've heard," Hershel says.
"That's because it's the first I've brought it up," she confesses. "He was three when.."
I frown at the implication.
"I'm sorry for your loss," Hershel says.
"Aren't we all?" she muses.
I pick up the arm of the dead body and we slide the body off the trailer and onto the pile.
"I only ever had my stepson, Shawn," Hershel says. "Maggie and Bethy are my blood. I didn't know the full extent to having a son. I sure wish I had."
"You have Glenn," Michonne offers.
"And I treasure him dearly," Hershel assures. "But.. I know that a mother's love is different when the child comes from her body."
I take a moment to contemplate the message he was trying to convey. It makes my heart swell in appreciation for Woojin- more than typically."
"You wanna set fire to the bodies?" Michonne asks, taking out the torch.
I toss her a water bottle of gasoline.
"Why me?" Hershel asks.
"You deserve to let of some steam," Michonne says, pouring the gas on the cloth.
"I used to keep walkers in my barn," Hershel reveals to Michonne, making me lower my head. "Thought there was a cure. Thought if I just kept my family in there.. they'd come back."
Michonne lights the torch and looks at him as he speaks.
"I didn't want everyone in the sick ward to see me mercy kill the ones that didn't make it," he explains. "Because.. I saw my family be killed all at once."
"You're not alone," I assure, hopping off the trailer. "I'm just sorry I couldn't stop him."
"Your sister was in there," he recalls. "And Q.. was here.."
I nod slowly. "I've got all the answers I need. Why Jiwoo went missing. Why she wouldn't come home. She was trying to protect me. and I just.. fell right in his trap."
Hershel takes the lit torch from Michonne. "I pray that Maggie and Beth can do that for each other. Even if it puts them in danger.. the thought of them fighting to find one another no matter what- that's what makes me feel better."
He tosses the torch onto the pile of bodies and we watch as it ignites.
"I'm sorry, too," Hershel says.
"Don't be," I deny. "Without you- I would've been even more lost. More ways than just not knowing where my sister was."
We step around the bodies and load up our supplies. Hershel pats my back comfortingly.
"Feel like this is the most I've ever opened up," Michonne confesses.
"Finally starting to feel like home?" I tease.
She laughs and turns around, walking backward to look at me. "Maybe."
I quirk an eyebrow at her and she shrugs playfully. When she turns around, she walks into a force that knocks her to the ground.
"Oh, shit-" I start forward to help her up.
I expected there to be a branch. Maybe even a walker.
The Governor..
The Governor raises the gun he'd just knocked Michonne out with and points it at Hershel.
"Put it down," he demands when Hershel tried to raise his gun.
My body feels like I'm floating. It's the same mixture of emotions I had when I saw Q in the prison.
"You made it," I whisper, holding my arms out to my side in surrender so Hershel wouldn't get shot.
"I did," Governor agrees. "Now.. time to pick up where we left off."
𝒶𝓊𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓇 𝓇𝒶𝓂𝒷𝓁𝑒𝓈--
hello quick question
how many of you have read my other book MAKNAE ?
YOU ARE READING
traded my life [TWD]
Fanfictionshe never planned on joining the hard life. she never planned on living with a cop. she never planned on her entire life falling apart. she did plan for the end of the world, though. she welcomed the end with open arms and a smile. .hyejin yoo.