What Happens Next

The Tragedy

Some screamed. Some began to cry. I stood in the shock. Looking back, seeing a bullet wound hit a man's neck.

My eyes widened in shock and ran over with my hand under my stomach and fell on my knees after getting to his body, "Daryl, oh god.." I say softly trying to put pressure on the wound without choking him more than he already is. "Get Carson!" I yell frantically as Carl tried pulling me back, "no, Jess. We can't save him," he says softly. He hid pain behind his words, but I heard it.

"He can make it, we just have to.." I say softly and then stopped. His pulse was gone, blood covered my hands.

I kneeled in the middle of The Hilltop. The gates opened and the truck came back inside. Rick got out of the car and saw Daryl on the ground in front of me, dead. I looked back up to him and saw tears coming from his eyes. I closed my eyes looking down and felt Carl's hand on my shoulder. People need to stop dying. They need to stop killing our people. "Let's finish this." I say and look at everyone and stand up, "let's end it." I say walking away to wash my hands.

"Jessica, don't you think we should wait?" He asks looking at me, "I don't want to wait Carl. I want everyone to stop dying. I know even if we end this, people are still going to die, but they won't as fast." I sigh scrubbing my hands.
"Jess, we need to recover. We lost people today, we need to bury them, Daryl. Just stay calm."

I looked to Carl and nodded, "I just want to get this over with," I say softly, "I want to give birth, and keep fighting."
"You're not going to be fighting after you have the baby. You need to stay here and take care of it." I looked to him and leaned against the wall and closed my eyes nodding slowly, "I just don't want to stay stuck here."
"I know Jess." He says softly pulling me into a tight hold, "but it'll be over soon."

The next day, I don't think there was a single person without tears. The brave soldier was lowered down in a whole. Everyone close to him, knowing him from the beginning was there by his side. I stood next to Carl, I didn't say a thing. I stared down, never knowing Daryl as well as everyone else.

Everyone walked away from the grave of the man, I sat on the steps into my trailer and stared down, "you ok?" Maggie asks walking over, sitting down next to me, "yeah, I'm fine. I just feel so bad for everyone, for you guys," I say looking up to her, "you have reason to feel bad. You lost him just as much as we did." Maggie looks down at me and wraps her arm around me. I smile faintly and lay my head against her.