Just Keep Walking

Forty seven

"Mary? What are you doing?" A woman asked as she walked past Mary sat on the porch at six in the morning the next day. Mary looked up to see Rosita, and gave her a little smile, then walked over to her.
"Playing. I have my Carl Bunny." Mary yawned.
"You look really tired, sweetie. Did you have a bad nightmare again?"
"I didn't really sleep at all."
"Oh, kid. Are you worried about your dad?"
"He's daddy," Mary whined suddenly, her eyes tearful, "and yes. And Glenny and Mishy and Uncle Daryl."
"They'll be back today, okay? Don't you worry. In fact, I can hear the gate now. Shall we go see who it is?"
"Yes please."
"Alright. Is Maggie in the house? Yeah? Hey Maggie! I've got Mary!" Rosita shouted.
"Okay!" Maggie replied from the kitchen. Mary reached up and grabbed onto Rosita's hand, holding it tightly, her bunny in the other one, and they walked to the gate.
"Do you miss Abeman?"
"Abeman? Good name." Rosita chuckled, then she went quiet. "Yeah, maybe a little. But it's okay, 'cos they'll be back really soon."
"Yeah."
"Hey, who's that?" Rosita smiled softly as the turned the corner to the gates. Mary's face lit up, and she ran straight into Michonne's arms, screaming her name.
"You're home!" Mary squealed as Michonne lifted her up, hugging her close.
"I'm home." Michonne said softly with a sigh of relief, breathing in Mary's scent.
"Daddy didn't come home, or Glenny, or Uncle Daryl." Mary whispered suddenly, her voice faltering. Michonne turned to Rosita, and her heart sank when she saw her nod.
"They'll be back soon. Okay? Your daddy always comes home. It's okay. Don't you worry." Michonne soothed, stroking Mary's back. Heath helped Scott into the infirmary, but Michonne stayed there with Mary, holding her tightly.
"Michonne? Oh thank God. Who else is back?" Maggie asked as she jogged over. "Where's Glenn?"
"Hey, come here, kid." Rosita said softly, pulling Mary out of Michonne's arms, making Mary whine in annoyance, wanting to be with Michonne.
"What? What is it? Michonne, where's Glenn? Is he in the infirmary?"
"No." Michonne whispered, putting her hand on Maggie's shoulder.
"W-what? What do you mean? Michonne, where the hell is my husband?" Maggie asked frantically.
"He split off with Nicholas," Michonne explained slowly, "he had this idea that if he lit a fire, it would stop the Walkers from coming here. I tried to go instead. I wanted to. The fire never got lit. We had to keep going. I'm sorry. He said if he got stuck, he would find a way to send us a signal."
"A signal?" Maggie asked shakily.
"What do you mean? Is Glenny dead? He's not dead! What do you mean?!" Mary panicked, raising her voice in fear, pure terror, more than ever before, the fear of knowing that one of the people she loved the most was probably dead.
"Open the gate!" A voice shouted suddenly.
"That's daddy. That's daddy!" Mary screamed, wriggling out of Rosita's hold to run to him. "DADDY! DADDY!"
"Open the gates! Open the gate now!" Rick yelled, his voice full of panic and fear. Maggie and Rosita rushed to the gate, and opened it, showing them Rick, running to the gate, completely surrounded by a herd of Walkers.
"Daddy!" Mary sobbed, full of happiness but fear. Then Rick fell, and Mary ran to help him back up, making Maggie, Michonne, and Rosita scream her name.
"Mary! Get back! BACK!" Rick yelled, stumbling up to his feet, pushing Walkers away. But Mary just ran closer to him. "MARY! Go the OTHER WAY!" Rick roared, but Mary kept going, until Rick reached her, catching her and running to the gates, which Maggie promptly shut behind them.
"Mary! That was stupid!" Rick hissed, crouching down in exhaustion.
"I thought you was dead." Mary sobbed, clinging onto him. Rick realised how scared Mary must have been, and he held her tightly, shushing her, kissing the top of her head.
"It's okay. It's okay, I'm back now. I'm back now." Rick soothed.
"You nearly died! And I would never know if you did or not, because you wasn't here! And bad people came. One tried to kill me and one tried to take me away! I killed her. And I had to hide in Maggie's kitchen cupboard because no one was there to help me." Mary wailed into Rick's shirt.
Rick stood up slowly, Mary hanging from his neck, still crying. "What the hell happened here?" Rick asked sharply.
"Too much." Rosita sighed, and Rick held Mary even tighter.
"Where is everyone?"
"No one else came back. Only you, Michonne, Scott, and Heath." Maggie whispered.
"Shit. Shit!" Rick hissed, kicking the gate angrily, making the Walkers snarl even more. "Where's Carl and Judith? Are they safe?"
"They're at the house. They're fine." Maggie nodded.
"What the hell happened? These people... Why are there dead people on the street? This isn't... We bury them. How did they die?" Rick asked shakily.
"A group got inside the walls. They killed people but left them to come back..." Rosita explained, "They were crazy. Genuinely crazy."
"Mary was in the garden, and one of them came over and grabbed her. Carl pulled him off her, they were fighting, then he screamed at her to run to my house. She did, but someone grabbed her. Mary... She... Mary... M-Mary... And afterwards she came into the house and hid until it was over."
"Mary what? What did she do? Mary, what did you do?" Rick asked in panic.
"I killed her. The woman that tried to take me." Mary answered quietly.
Rick sighed shakily and kissed the side of her head. "Okay. That's okay. She was a bad person, and you was just trying to keep yourself safe. Okay? Are you okay?"
"I'm okay. I couldn't let her take me. I had to stop her. I did the right thing."
"Okay. Okay," Rick nodded slowly, then he turned to Spencer and Deanna, "we need reinforcements against this wall. Can you find the construction team to do it? I need to go and see Carl and Judith."
"When did you last eat?" Michonne asked, but Rick just shrugged, then began to walk to the house, Mary facing him, her arms wrapped around his neck.
"Daddy, when did you last eat?"
"Probably yesterday. Don't worry about me. I'll have something to eat when we get home."
"Daddy! That's bad for you."
"Yeah, yeah." Rick brushed away, rolling his eyes slightly. Mary closed her eyes, breathing into Rick's shirt. He smelt like he used to; sweat, blood, burnt meat, the forest. It comforted the child, and in Rick's protective arms, Mary finally fell to sleep.

"Daddy?" Mary whined, waking up slowly.
"Hey, baby. Listen, me and Carl have gotta go out. Carol's here to look after you and Judith. We won't be long."
"I'm gonna come." Mary mumbled groggily, sitting up on the sofa she had been sleeping on.
"No, Maggie told me you didn't sleep at all last night. You've only had an hour now. Go back to sleep."
"No, I'm gonna come." Mary insisted, sitting up.
"Okay." Rick sighed, going to the hallway and passing Mary her shoes. She pulled them on, blinking her eyes heavily, then ate some crisps that Rick gave her.
"Alright, let's go then." Rick sighed. Mary crawled up his arm, making him hold her, still eating.
"Are we surrounded?" Mary asked him quietly as they walked to the walls.
"Yeah. For now. But we'll fix it. We always do." Rick assured, and Mary nodded quietly.
"You can hear it!" Rick shouted as they got to the fences, Maggie taking Mary without a word, "Some of you saw it. They got back here, half of them! Still enough to surround us twenty deep. Look, I know you're scared. You haven't seen anything like this. You haven't been through anything like this. But we're safe for now. The panel the truck hit seems intact. We reinforced it just in case. Either way, the wall's gonna hold together. Can you? The others they're gonna be back..."
"They're gonna be back." Rosita nodded firmly, confirming Rick's statement, changing it into a fact. Mary nestled closer into Maggie's chest, worried about Glenn.
"Daryl, Abraham, Sasha, they have vehicles. They're gonna lead 'em away, just like the others. And Glenn and Nicholas are gonna walk back through the front gate after. They know what they're doing, and we know what we need to do. We keep noise to a minimum. Pull our blinds at night. Even better, keep the lights out. We'll try to make this place as quiet as a graveyard, see if they move on."
"This place is a graveyard!" A woman hissed suddenly, and Rick went quiet with a sigh.
"The quarry broke open and those Walkers were heading this way. All of them. That plan that Rick put into place stopped that from happening. He got half of them away," Aaron explained, his voice strong, "I was out there recruiting with Daryl. I wanted to try to get into a cannery and scavenge, and Daryl wanted to keep looking for people. We did what I wanted, and we wound up in a trap sat by those people and I lost my pack. They must've followed our tracks. Those people who attacked us, they found their way back here because of me."
"They'll be more to talk about..."
"Deanna? Deanna?" Tobin shouted, seeing Deanna walk away. The woman simply kept walking.

"Baby? You okay?" Rick asked gently as he say Mary sat on the road, looking at some blood.
"Yeah." Mary nodded quietly.
"Hey, Jessie has got something for you." Rick grinned, motioning to the woman beside him.
"What?"
"Well, our neighbours had this little friend. They... They aren't here anymore, and I can't look after him. So I brought you a new friend." Jessie explained. Then she showed Mary what was hidden in her own arms, and the girl screamed in delight.

It was a dog.