The End

Chapter 43

As the day went on, I tried finding things to keep my mind off Rick and Carl. It hardly worked. I had eventually made my way back to my cell. Sitting on the bottom bunk and losing myself in my thoughts. All I could think about was them and whether or not they were fine. I don't think I could go on if something happened to them. I had tried so hard to find them. Fought every step of the way. Yes, I had a new family within this group, but losing Rick and Carl would be too much to handle. As I lost my head with more of these thoughts, Carol came into my cell to check on me.

"You all right?" she asked.

I wiped a tear that had fallen. Sniffled before I looked up at her.

"Yeah...uh...fine," I replied.

"What's wrong?" she asked taking a seat next to me.

"Nothing, Carol. I'm fine," I replied.

"You can talk to me, Amelia," she continued.

I couldn't hold up this façade. I knew that she was one of the many people in this group that I could talk to.

"It's just...I can't help but worry about Rick and Carl. I know I shouldn't. They're both capable of taking care of themselves but, after everything we've gone through. Everything we've lost. I can't lose anyone else. That's what scares me to death. And it's not just Carl and Rick. I can't lose anyone else in this group. You've all grown to mean so much to me. An important piece of my life. I don't know...maybe I'm losing my mind or something," I said.

She wrapped her arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer to her.

"Rick and Carl are going to be fine. And when they come back, we'll be ready to take out this Governor, if Andrea hasn't already done so," she said.

"You really think she was able to do it?" I asked.

"I hope so. Of course there's no way for us to know for sure," she said.

Carol and I sat there for a while. Quiet. And for the first time, it didn't bother me. Having someone nearby made the silence bearable. Judith then started to cry. We parted.

"She must need a change," Carol said.

"Let's get to it then," I said.

We stood up and headed to Carol's cell. Once we had reached it, I picked Judith up and tried to calm her crying.

"I'm grateful no one looted baby diapers. We would have had a huge problem if we weren't lucky enough to find enough to last us over a year," I said.

I put her down on the bottom bunk. Carol changed the diaper. Boy, did Judith need it.

"Wow. The fluids a baby can release," I said waving my hand in front of my nose.

Carol chuckled.

"You'd be surprised. Sophia had some questionable stuff come out of her when she was a baby," she said.

I laughed. Judith was changed. That seemed to have calmed her down. She was now closing her eyes trying to get back to sleep.

"On a continuous loop that girl is on," I said as I watched Judith try to find a comfortable position.

Carol picked her up and put her back into her little bed. I looked out the dirty window across the cell. The sun was starting to set. That made me uneasy. What if something happened to Rick and Carl that prevented them from coming back? 'No more than a day' was what Rick had said. I looked back at Carol watching Judith. I went over and sat on the bottom bunk and watched as Carol rocked the crate ever so slightly to get Judith to rest peacefully. I then heard someone making their way up the stairs rather quickly. I looked up just as Daryl appeared at the entrance of the cell.