Survive ( twd carlgrimes)

Chapter 96

MADISONS POV.
Three days have passed without trouble and today is the 5th of December. Which means today is Abbies birthday if she remembers it or not. I remember in the carts when she was old enough to understand what her birthday was. She was happy and unabused that day. That day we were fed and I gave her half my portion of food to celebrate. Although stale bread isn't a great birthday present. All my stitches were taken out yesterday. Now I was in the canteen decorating it while Abbie is at 'school'. Everyone knows about this party except for Abbie. I stand on a table to hang a pink dangly decoration from a light. Luke holds his hand out to help me down and I take it.
"Do you remember one of my birthdays and Ben took us and Nick across the road to Mrs. Stanleys house and we toilet papered it?" I laugh, that was the last birthday I had before we were taken. Luke laughs.
"Aw man, that was so much fun. But then we got caught." He laughs handing me another decoration.
"We were grounded for like a week." I remember.
"Ben told us that on my birthday we would egg her house instead." Luke says.
"Yeah... I guess we didn't get to that one." I sigh.
"I cried myself to sleep for weeks upon weeks when people said you died. I couldn't not live up to it, so I bought some eggs with my pocket money and at the night of my birthday I egged her house and I felt like you guys were there anyways." He tells me.
I can't help but smile. I turned around and hugged him. His strong arms wrap around my waist.
"What was that for?" He asks.
"For always being there for me even if I couldn't be there for you." I tell him.
I pull back from him and drag him towards the food table. We had sausages, pasta, cupcakes... I couldn't get my head around it. I havn't ate food like this in years. My mouth watered at the smell.
"It's so tempting." Luke moans.
"They wouldn't notice if we took just one sausage. Do you think?" I chance.
"Dig in." He approves.
We each picked up a sausage and ate it. I couldn't help but moan in satisfaction. It tasted amazing and I savoured the taste. Luke looked the same. I'm about to take another bite until somebody stands in front with their hands on their hips.
"Your in trouble for that!" They scold.
I nearly drop the sausage until I realised it was Beth with a smirk on her face. "I'm just kidding. We could get in trouble for this.... Hand me one." She eventually gives in and I hand her one.
"Mhhhh.... Your an amazing sister to her, thats for sure." She moans. I laugh at her reaction. Beth and I have gotton close in the past couple of days. I am best friends with Maggie but Beth is a younger more rebeling version of Maggie. I love them equally the same. She knows how to make me laugh. Everyone files into the room each with a balloon in their hands. Rick appears next to me.
"Abbies coming down for lunch now. She'll be here any minute." He says handing me and Luke a pink balloon.
I grab a polaroid camera that we found on the run and move to the front to snap her reaction. Thanks to our little spy/Abbies best friend, Anna, she keeps us updated on Abbies actions throughout the day. I hear two girls giggling and I know imediately that it's Abbie and Anna. Abbie walks in and everyone throws their balloons in the air and screams.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!"
Her face is full of happiness and surprise and thats when I take the picture. The print comes out and I put it in my pocket to wait for the image to appear. I give Beth the camera and run over to Abbie with open arms and she jumps into my arms. I hug her and i'm not able to stop smiling. I notice a flash in our direction and we look over to see Beth, Carl and Luke with the camera pointing at us.
"Did you do this." Abbie asks over the noise of everyone yelling.
"I had a lot of help." I admit.
"Maddie, your the best sister I could ever ask for. I love you so so much."
"I love you to Abbie." I grab her hand and drag her towards the food table where her jaw drops to the ground at the sight of the food. I get her a plate and we both pile food onto them. We run over to our groups table and we devour our food.
"Save some room Abbie, we still have the cake." Maggie yells over the noise.
"CAKE? Are you serious?" Her face lights up. Just on que the cake is placed in front of her. It was nothing fancy. We got the ingredients to make a sponge cake. We used buttericing on the surface and used a red colour icing to say 'Happy birthday Abbie!'
Carl sits beside me and wraps his arm around my waist and uses his other arm to hold a giddy Judith. I smile at her. I hold my arms out to take Judith from Carl. She laughs in my hands.
"Hello Baby!" I coo.
"She needs to stop growing or next thing we know she'll be the one with a 9th birthday cake sitting in front of her." I say and Carl shakes his head.
"Its crazy, she's already trying to start crawling." He says proudly. I lift a spoon of cake to her mouth and she eats it while claping her hands. I smile thinking that she would've been the child I can never have.
After some time the party ends and curfew occurs so everyone leaves. When its just our group left I turn to Abbie.
"This is for you. Happy birthday." I say handing her the necklace. She stares at it in amazement.
"Its beautiful." She murmurs.
"It reminded me of you. You asked me one time why you didn't have anything to represent anyone you loved like I do. I have the ring dad gave me and our mothers necklace. You told me you didn't have anything that reminded you of anyone we loved. But I think you should have something of your own, to remind you of who you are in your darkest hours, even if i'm not there to help you." I tell her as I put it on her.
She nearly tackles me to the ground when she hugs me and I laugh.
"Our mother would be so proud of you Abbie." I whisper and a small tear escapes her.
"Hey, don't you know the birthday rules. The birthday girl isn't allowed to cry." I tell her. She wipes her tear away. "You just made that up." She giggles. I shrug my shoulders. "Maybe."
A half hour later we have mostly cleaned everything up and we're heading to bed. I carry Judith upstairs to my room and I grab my arrows and bow slinging them on my back. I walk back outside and see Eugine walking to his room.
"Hey, Abbie is talking to Beth. Could you mind Judith while I go do something?" I ask.
"Uhh, sure." He says awkwardly taking her. I go down to the canteen and gather the remaining scraps of food and I walk to the bottom floor. I walk along the cells hurrying to the bottom where Dawn, Matt and Eathon are. They may be prisioners here but I can't put them through a fraction of what I went through. Even if I do hate them. When I reach Dawns cell I notice something odd. I lean closer and notice she's not in there. I open the door and look inside. Still no sign. I run over to Matt and Eathons cell. Their doors are wide open. Thats when I notice a long line of liquid trailing up the hall. I follow it up the stairs and through the reception. I squated down and smelled the substance.
Gasoline.
It lead all the way into Dawns office. When I opened the door who was there only Dawn and the two brats.
"Madison Smith. We've been expecting you to visit. You took your time. Lets get down to business, shall we?" She smirks holding a lit match above the gasoline. Suddenly I feel a fist connect to my face knocking me on the ground.