Irresistible Danger

Watch My Love Grow With Time

                  

Walking into the compound and down the main hall, you were quickly snapped back to reality when you remembered that Ricardo was still covered in blood and bits of flesh from the two walkers you had stabbed out in the woods. Glancing up at the bloody tip hanging over your shoulder, you grimaced. How the hell are you supposed to clean this off? How does Negan clean Lucille?

Either luck or divine intervention chose that moment to help you out, as you turned a corner and found an elderly woman pushing a cleaning cart down the hall. You guiltily hoped it wasn't the same cart that you had stolen Ricardo from the other night.

Walking up to her with a smile, you asked to borrow one of the yellow mop buckets from the cart. At first she gave a scowl that said she was clearly going to refuse, but when you swung Ricardo down from your shoulder for her to see, her face paled and she wordlessly thrust a bucket at you, tossing a clean rag in it as well. Thanking her, you walked off, not realizing until you rounded the corner that perhaps you should've clarified to her that it was walker blood on your weapon, and not from a fellow compound member.

You walked upstairs to your room, which was on the third floor, like most of the other private rooms (except Negan and his wife's rooms, of course, which were above you on the fourth floor). Moving clothes out of the way, you laid Ricardo across the wooden chair so that his blood-stained end hung off the side. You then grabbed the pail and went down the hall to the closest single-stall bathroom to fill the bucket halfway with warm water. Using both hands, you were careful not to splash any water on yourself as you carried it back to your room. Adding some laundry detergent, you swirled the rag in the now-disinfected water, grabbed Ricardo, and sat down in the chair with the bucket between your legs.

About ten minutes later and Ricardo's point was once again clean, whereas both the rag and the water in the pail were a dark red color that was anything but appetizing. Picking up the bucket, dirty rag, and detergent, you walked back down the hall to the bathroom, praying you didn't run into too many people while carrying a bucket of watered-down walker guts.

The hall was blissfully clear except for one older gentleman who smiled at you in passing, but thankfully didn't glance down at what you were carrying. Arriving at the bathroom, you dumped the contents of the bucket into the toilet, pushed the flusher, and watched satisfactorily as the bloody water swirled down the drain. You repeated the process a couple times, swishing sink water and detergent into the bucket before dumping it down the toilet, and using some paper towels to wipe it out until the inside was as clean and bright yellow as when you had first retrieved it. Looking at the red-stained rag, you knew that it was a lost cause, and so tossed it in the bathroom's trash can.  

Walking back downstairs to the first floor, you arrived at the hall where the woman had been before. She was nowhere to be found, but the cleaning cart was there, sitting against the side of the hallway. You placed the bucket back where it belonged and returned to your room. Now that Ricardo was clean, you were free to focus on yourself. Grabbing shower items and a change of clothes, you walked down to the women's showering area, which was one floor below your room. Once freshly showered and changed, your stomach gave a rumble to remind you that it had been ignored all day thanks to your whirlwind morning. Taking the shower items back up to your room (you really were getting your exercise today with all these stairs), you grabbed two granola bars out of a wooden crate and scarfed them down with a bottle of water.

Now feeling refreshed, you decided to head down to the commissary to look for an alarm before your next outing tomorrow. Negan hadn't specified if you were to leave at the same time, but you weren't taking any chances after oversleeping this morning.