salvation → g. rhee

hounded

The tense silence, punctuated only by spoons clinking against bowls, made Aubrey's scalp prickle. They spooned up their breakfast wordlessly, pretending to ignore the glances that were exchanged between various people.

"Everybody okay?"

Their heads lifted at the sound of Rick's voice and swiveled to look at him - aside from Aubrey, who merely stared down at her breakfast.

"Yeah, we are," Glenn replied.

The door swung open with a squeak and Rick strode in. He was no longer bloody, and the manic look had left his eyes to their original icy blue.

"What about you?" Hershel asked.

"I cleared out the boiler block."

"How many were there?" Daryl asked.

"I don't know. A dozen, two dozen. I have to get back. Just wanted to check on Carl, and..." Rick trailed off, his gaze moving to Aubrey, and away just as fast when he knew she wasn't going to look at him. "And that's all," he muttered, patting Carl's shoulder.

"Rick, we can handle taking out the bodies," Glenn said, rising from his seat as the man turned away. "You don't have to."

"No, I do," Rick said gruffly, crossing the space to where Daryl sat. "Everyone have a gun and a knife?"

"Yeah. We're running low on ammo, though," Daryl answered.

"Aubrey and I were planning on making a run this afternoon," Glenn said.

Rick turned to him.

"Found a phone book with some places we can hit, look for bullets and formula."

"We cleared out the generator room," Daryl said, stealing Rick's attention.
"Axel's there tryin' to fix it in case of emergency. We're gonna sweep the lower levels as well."

"Good. Good," Rick said dismissively, striding out of the commons.

"Rick," Hershel called, as he swung the door closed with a definitive squeak.

Carl sat back against the wall while the group cleared out the breakfast stuff.

"Hey."

He looked up, his heart lifting when he saw it was Aubrey standing over him. She'd hardly spoken to him in eight months, and while Rick got the brunt end of it, it still crushed him when she would avoid his eyes and leave his rare smiles unreturned.

"H-hey," he faltered, burying the hopes that had leapt into him too fast. His eyes followed her as she crouched down in front of him.

"I'm so, so sorry about Lori. I-I loved her, too, and I- whoa!" Aubrey exclaimed when Carl shot forward, throwing his arms around her neck. The brim of his hat bumped against the side of her head as she rested her chin against his shoulder, holding him in a tight embrace.

"I'm sorry I killed Shane," Carl said in a small voice.

Aubrey pulled away and held him at arm's length, and Carl saw the way her dark brown eyes flicked between his clear blue ones.

"It's okay," she said slowly, inhaling a deep breath through her nose. "What you killed, that wasn't my dad. That... that was just another monster."

Carl nodded sadly.

"Listen to me," Aubrey said, gripping his shoulders. "After this is all over, you and I are gonna rebuild all that was lost, and we're gonna rule it together, okay?"

"Okay," Carl nodded, cracking his first small smile in days.

The corners of Aubrey's lips quirked up as she straightened up, one of her hands still remaining on his shoulder.