Stale M&M's (recently plagiarized as "Sweet Tooth") The Walking Dead Fanfiction

26. Season 5 ~ Strangers

Summary: After meeting a mysterious man living alone in a church, the group take a moment to rest and recover from recent events.

~

They all followed Gabriel along a wooded track. When asked, he claimed not to have been watching them before, that he kept to himself — "Nowadays, people are just as dangerous as the dead, don't you think?"

"No," Daryl answered. "People're worse."

"Well, I wasn't watching you. I haven't been beyond the stream near my church more than a few times since it all started. That, where you found me, was the furthest I've gone before today." He smiled at their disbelief, and added, "Or maybe I'm lying. Maybe I'm lying about everything and there's no church at all. Maybe I'm leading you into a trap so I can steal all your squirrels..."

They circled him, drawing their weapons.

Gabriel swallowed nervously. "Members of my flock had, uh, often told me that my sense of humour leaves much to be desired."

"Yeah," Daryl said, "it does..."

Awkwardly, Gabriel turned and kept walking — into a tree branch.

A few minutes later there was cement under their feet and they were travelling along a craggly road. No train tracks or wooden planks, thank God. The church was ahead, just like Gabriel said, looking small and cosy in the centre of a small lot with a short bus in the parking lot and a small graveyard on the far side, one road leading in or out.

By the front, along the fence, was a wooden sign...

'ST. SARAH'S CHURCH
⛨
EPISCOPAL'

Oliver noticed the way Carl's smile hadn't gone away while he carried Judith towards the front door, her chubby cheek squashed against his shoulder. Rick cut ahead to follow Gabriel up the steps first.

"Hold up. Can we take a look around first? We just wanna hold onto our squirrels."

Gabriel chuckled, then stepped aside, nodding stiffly, so while he and the rest of them waited outside, Rick, Michonne, Daryl, Glenn, and Carol went in. Oliver only joined them when Carol gestured to him to follow her.

They kept their weapons aimed as they spread out across the church. It was a relatively small building, with its main room filled with rows of pews and two doors that led off to other rooms. It looked tidy, but smelled musty and thick like it'd been lived in for too long without an opened window. There were scripture writings printed on the walls.

'And the graves were opened,
and many bodies of the saints which slept, arose.
Matthew 27:52'

Oliver followed Carol through one door near the back, into what looked like an office with a cluttered desk. On it was a notebook and Carol flipped through its pages. Meanwhile, Oliver looked at a painting on the wall of the Last Supper. Daryl appeared at the door, crossing the room to nose through some of the fancy robes on a clothing rack. Oliver joined Carol at the desk, noticing how her face was hard like stone. She wasn't fast enough to close the notebook before he read what was written along the margins.

'THOU SHALT NOT KILL'

She avoided his eyes, said, "Come on," and led the way out of the room. Oliver followed her towards the altar. The sun shone down through the stain-glass windows, casting rainbows across their feet. There was a varnished table with a few unlit candles and brass ornaments on top. Behind the table, stacked neatly against the walls, were stacks of opened cans of food.