Safe and Sound| TWD⁴

「𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓻𝓽𝓮𝓮𝓷」Morgan and Duane

{An hour later}

𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓 down, headed to the infirmary to check on Tara. When he got to the porch he saw Glenn and Nicholas, both men seemed injured. "Jesus." He muttered, half annoyed, knowing that he needed to help Glenn get Nicholas up the stairs. Reluctantly he did so and when they walked in the front door Rosita ran over to help.

"What happened? Are you okay?" She asked, putting her hands on Glenn's arms to get him to look at her.

"I'm okay." The man nodded and his eyes then landed on Tara, who sat awake on a bed.

"You guys look like shit."

Kai grinned, walking closer to her bed. "Decided to join the land of the living again, I see." He attempted to joke but deep down he knew that now someone would have to tell her about what happened to Noah.

Glenn walked over to stand by the blond just as Maggie walked in. "Tara?" The woman asked, not believing her eyes as a smile appeared on her face.

Tara nodded. "I'm okay. You should check on them."

That's when Maggie immediately ran over to Glenn. "I'm okay." He assured her.

"What happened?"

"We were out there. The walkers and— we're alright." Glenn said, his gaze flickered over to Nicholas for a split second.

Eugene stepped in through the opened front door and smiled a little when he saw that Tara was awake. "Holy shit." He walked over to stand beside Kai.

"Thank God. . . nothing happened to your hair." Tara joked with a big smile.

The man stared at her with a wide smile. Tara let out an awkward chuckle. "Okay, Eugene's freaking me out. Somebody want to send Noah in here to protect me?"

Eugene's smile fell at her question and the room went quiet. Tara frowned, she didn't need to ask, she already knew by just looking at everyone. . . Noah was dead.

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{three hours later}

"𝐈 𝐃𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐖𝐇𝐘 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐆𝐎𝐓 𝐌𝐄 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐁𝐄𝐃 𝐒𝐎 𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄." Duane yawned as he followed Devin down the dark Alexandria sidewalk with only a flashlight to light their way.

"I've gotta surprise for you." Devin smiled as they neared an empty house.

The younger boy's eyes narrowed. "A surprise that couldn't wait for morning?"

She looked over at him and shook her head. "I couldn't risk someone spoiling it— now come on." She pulled him over to a door and pulled out some keys to unlock it. "Rick doesn't know that I borrowed these from him. . . so, this stays between us." She told him as she unlocked the door.

The two of them walked in and saw a man sitting in the corner, reading. Devin smiled smugly. "I know, I know, I'm the greatest. . . but for real, thank my dad, Daryl and Aaron."

Morgan looked up and Duane's eyes widened. "Daddy?" He softly asked and the man smiled as he stood up.

"Hey, Son—" before he could finish Duane tackled him into a hug.

Devin crossed her arms and leaned against the door as she watched the two hug with a proud smile on her face. How could she not smile? Duane had his dad back just like her and her siblings did.

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{a day later}

𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐈𝐒𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐀𝐓 Eugene upon hearing a car engine on the other side of the gate. "Hey, it's us." An unfamiliar voice called out from the other side. "We're back. You gonna let us in or what?"

Eugene shrugged and pulled open the first gate that worked as some sort of privacy fence. Staring back at him was a dark skinned man wearing glasses. "We're technically not authorized, so, we will not be doing so." He told the man.

The Man's brows furrowed. "Who the hell are you?"

"Who the hell are you?" Elle shot back, raising a brow.

"I'm Heath. I live here. My teams been on a run the last couple weeks."

"I'm Eugene and my comrade here is Eloise. Aaron brought myself and our group here directly within that window, so we haven't had the chance to meet and I can't exactly confirm your residence."

"Open the gate." Heath demanded.

"Don't tell him what to do." Eloise snapped and the man looked at her.

"Then you open the gate."

"Don't tell me what to do."

"If I do open the gate, how do I know you won't attempt to kill me?" Eugene asked.

Heath laughed, shaking his head. "Look, I'm not gonna kill you. But the longer you make me wait, the more you motivate me to beat your ass, so. . ."

Eugene looked over at Eloise and tilted his head. The blonde rolled her eyes and shrugged. "I don't care. . . I'll go find Rick and let him know about this." She told him before walking away.

𝐄𝐍𝐃 𝐎𝐅 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑
𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧—3.27.24
𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝—6.2.24

𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄: sorry this took me so long to publish.

Also, I just wanted to let y'all know that I'm currently writing a book about Dane, Rick, Shane and Lori's highschool years just so I can get into how they met and things like that. It's gonna be anywhere between twenty and thirty chapters long and it'll also have chapters after the storyline is over that follows just random one-shots that follow different events that happened either before the apocalypse or after for different oc's that are in any of the four books already published(hope that all made sense.) Gonna try to have it out sometime before October!