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

28. Season 5 ~ New World's Gonna Need Rick Grimes

Summary: Everyone tries to make Bob comfortable for his final moments. Abraham's crew leave for D.C. The remaining few in the church wait for Daryl and Carol to return.

CW: Nightmare referencing sexual abuse. Very quick.

~

For once, Oliver wasn't alone in losing sleep that night. The horror of the Termites' slaughter kept them all awake until the early hours of the morning, not to mention their worry over Daryl and Carol.

"Should we go after them?" Maggie asked.

"They could be hurt," Michonne said. "What if—"

"No," Rick said. "We'll just have to wait. We can't afford to worry about what ifs right now."

Oliver got up from his seat at a pew and stormed out of the church, slamming the door closed behind himself. Tara, Glenn, Abraham, and Rosita were moving the Termite bodies outside and across the parking lot, leaving them to rot in a ditch, Oliver assumed.

He didn't notice his eyes growing heavy as he sat with his head against the porch wall. He dreamed that he was back at the prison, during the attack, only it was his head that was chopped off instead of Hershel's.

"I know. We all. Can change."

And then as the Governor swung, Oliver wished himself away and suddenly he was at home, in Virginia, sitting at the back door with his kitchen behind him and his backyard ahead. For some reason Gareth was there, all butchered and bleeding in the only way Oliver had ever seen him. He felt afraid, until Gareth told him not to be.

"I won't eat you," he said.

"Are you sure?" Oliver asked.

Gareth laughed. He kept saying things Oliver had heard him say before. "No point in begging, right? We used to help people. You don't know what it is... to be hungry." And then he started saying things other people had told Oliver. "You're not here, and neither are we. You're either the butcher or the cattle." And then Oliver was suddenly in school, waiting in line at the cafeteria, and Gareth was gone and Penelope was there instead, yelling at the boys who liked to pick on them and call Oliver names like faggot and cocksucker and pansy.

At some point, Oliver noticed that nobody had a face. A lot of things happened after that, but not a lot of it made much sense. He and Penelope joked around and chatted and then the room went dark because the lunch-lady told them that Judith was for lunch. That freaked Oliver out, big time. He ran to the kitchen, calling Judith's name. Steaming pots on the stove rattled violently. When Oliver lifted their lids, his people screamed from every one of them. Glenn. Michonne. Carol. Carl. And then Oliver wasn't at school anymore. He was in the suburbs, locked in that terrible laundry room.

"Claimed."

He was grabbed. He was held down. Dan was in him and he was grunting and Oliver wanted to die and then he woke up to the sound of someone calling his name and he thrashed his arms and caught skin under his fingernails — Carl yelped — Oliver collapsed down the church steps, landing in the dirt.

"It's me!" Carl yelled. "It's just me!"

Oliver twisted around, sending dirt and dust everywhere. Coughing, he looked up the steps at Carl. His cheek was bleeding. Oliver was shaking. He stood up quickly and held himself around the middle, pacing in front of the steps.

"I'm sorry," he said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean—"

Grimacing, Carl touched his cheek. Blood came off on his fingertips. "Take your inhaler," he said.