Cassidy Grimes

Strangers Pt. 3

"So I found this thing," he begins, as he leads me to the back of the church. I frown, because whenever Carl "finds something," it ends up getting us both in trouble.

"Look, if it's a camp or something, wait until Dad gets back," I say to him, rubbing at my probably bloodshot eyes.

"No, just look. Look at this." He says as a voice from behind us makes us jump and instinctively reach for our weapons.

"Hey," our dad says as he walks up to us, "Tyreese said you guys were out back! Come on in, we found food, and a lot of it."

"Good," Carl puts his hand on his hips as we both sheath our weapons and stare at the thing Carl wanted to show me. Dad notices us examining something, and he follows our gaze.

"What is it?"he asks, stepping up to it. 

"Those scratches," Carl points at the scratches on the wall. "They're deep. Knives, or something. Someone was trying to get in." 

We stare at the cuts, the way the wood was picked from the building. It doesn't seem important to me, until Carl says he saw something else. We follow him as he says, "I don't know what happened, but whatever it is, we can handle it," he looks back at us and nods. 

"Doesn't mean Gabriel's a bad guy for sure," he starts as we look at the words on the wall, "but it means something."

Dad looks closer at the words, and we all exchange looks as I run my fingers across the words etched into the wall, the words "YOU'LL BURN FOR THIS."

***************************************************

We have a feast that night. Maybe not fit for a king, but hey, it's more food than we've seen in ages.  Allison, Jake and I all sit in a circle and eat while Carl gets his own plate. Dad eats with Judith, who feeds him as he opens his mouth for a bit of food. I smile, allowing myself this bit of happiness. 

"I'd like to propose a toast," Abraham's voice cuts through everyone's voices. Everyone who is currently standing goes to sit down. "As I look around this room, I see survivors. Each and every one of you has earned that title."

A silence settles in the room, and Abraham breaks it by lifting his glass and saying "To the survivors!" And Jake snickers as Allison and I both raise our cups, along with everyone else in the room, and we all repeat "the the survivors!"

Yeah, it's cheesy, but it really is a reminder of the hell we've all been through. And honestly, I couldn't pick a better group than this one to survive it with. 

But Abraham isn't done. 

"Is that all you want to be?" he asks, most of us looking up at him in confusion and interest. Abraham continues.  "Wake up in the morning, fight the undead pricks, forage for food, go to sleep with two eyes open, and repeat?" Abraham locks eyes with my father. "Because you can do that. I mean, you've got the strength, you've got the skill... The thing is, for you people, for what you can do, well, it's just surrender. 

"Now, we get Eugene to Washington and he will make the dead die and the living will have this world again, and that is not a bad takeaway for a little road trip."

Judith breaks the intensity of Abraham's words and coos as she nestles against my dad's chest. My father presses his mouth against her hair and shushes her gently. Allison slaps my arm quietly as a soft "awww" escapes her lips. "Same," I whisper. 

"Eugene, what's in DC?"

Everyone turns towards Eugene. 

"Infrastructure constructed to withstand pandemics even of this fubar magnitude." Jake coughs awkwardly, and whispers to me, "did you even understand a word he's saying?" I snicker, and elbow him as Eugene continues, "That means food, fuel, refuge. Restart."

Abraham's lip curls in one corner, and he chuckles. 

 "However this plays out, however long it takes for the reset button to kick in, you can be safe there. Safer than you've been since this whole thing started." He looks at my dad again. "Come with us." Abraham looks at Judith. "Save the world for that little one. Save it for yourselves. Save it for the people out there who don't got nothing left to do except survive."

Everyone looks at everyone else. Dad chuckles, as does Carl. Judith coos again, and Dad looks at her with pure love. "What was that?" I laugh. " I think she knows what I'm about to say. She's in. If she's in, I'm in. We're in," he says, nodding. 

Everyone laughs. 

"Let's do it!" Dad says as we all cheer. He gets up and walks off with Judith, and I lean against Jake and yawn. Sasha goes to play with my little sister, and I smile as I look around the room. Everyone is happy and merry, and I honestly couldn't ask for more. My dad walks off to who knows where, and I want to go ask where he's going, but Jake wraps his arms around me and it's just so warm in his arms and I'm just so tired and full and I can actually sleep peacefully...