Just Keep Walking

Fifty

As Rick and Mary walked home after Ron's lesson, Eric stopped them with a shout. "Hey! Rick!"
"Yeah?" Rick replied, walking over, Mary following him.
"Few weeks back, we found some tablets. I charged one up today and it has loads of kid's movies downloaded onto it, and games and stuff. Figured Mary would want it."
"What's a tablet?" Mary asked Eric curiously.
"It's sort of like a mini TV and a phone mixed together. I'll get it for you. If that's alright with you, Rick?"
"Of course. Thank you so much. That's great. Thank you." Rick smiled. Eric smiled back at him, and went into the house, coming out with a tablet in a bright pink foamy case, covered in butterflies, and a pair of over the head earphones.
"Thank you!" Mary grinned, hugging Eric tightly.
"You've just made my life a lot easier." Rick smiled thankfully, thinking about early mornings when he could sit Mary at the end of his bed with her earphones in, and he could sleep in past six am.
"Yeah. No worries." Eric nodded.
"Alright, I'll see you soon." Rick smiled to Eric, before leaving. "Let me carry that before you drop it." Rick ordered to Mary, and she nodded, passing it to him.
"Morgan," Rick called, seeing him talking to Denise, "can we talk now?" Morgan nodded, and walked over to them.
"Look at my new cardigan! And my tablet! I can watch movies on it." Mary announced proudly.
"Super cool." Morgan nodded, as they got on to the porch.
"I know. Mishy! Look!" Mary screamed happily, getting shushed by Rick.
"Oh wow. Nice cardigan." Michonne laughed as Mary jumped onto her lap, Carol next to them.
"And I got a tablet."
"Wow. You've had a fun morning." Michonne smiled, kissing the top of her head.
"It's lunchtime now, isn't it? I'm hungry."
"I know. Here. Eat these, watch this." Rick said gently, passing Mary her tablet and earphones, the introduction of Snow White playing already, and a bag of mini cheddars.
"Thank you." Mary smiled, pulling the earphones on and nestling into Michonne's chest, contently watching the screen and eating.
Once they were all sure that Mary was immersed into her film, Morgan finally spoke up. "What's going on?"
"When I was coming back, I tried to cut off the road with the RV. Lead the Walkers away. But five of those people with the Ws on their foreheads, they stopped me. They tried to kill me shot up the RV. Now Carol says she saw you. That you wouldn't kill those people."
"Did you let any of them go?" Carol asked harshly.
"Yes, I did. I didn't want to kill five people I didn't have to kill."
"They burned people alive." Carol hissed in disbelief.
"Yeah." Morgan nodded slowly, creating silence. Rick looked over at Mary, at her tiny, innocent face, and he was instantly a little calmer. "Why didn't you kill me, Rick, back in king County? Pulled a knife on you. I stabbed you. So why didn't you kill me? Was it 'cause I saved you after the hospital?"
"'Cause I knew who you were." Rick insisted with a sigh.
"Back there, I would have killed you as soon as look at you. And I tried. But you you let me live, and then I was there to help Aaron and Daryl. See if I, if I wasn't there... If they died... Maybe those Wolves wouldn't have been able to come back here. I don't know what's right anymore. 'Cause I did want to kill those men. I seen what they did, what they would've kept doing. I knew I could end it. But I also know that people can change. 'Cause everyone sitting here has. All life is precious, and that idea it-it changed me it brought me back, and it keeps me living."
"I just don't think it can be that easy." Michonne commented, holding Mary a little tighter. Mary had killed two people. Those two people would have gone on to kill more. In her eyes, Mary hadn't done anything wrong, because the two lives that Mary had taken were not precious. They were vile and evil and ugly.
"It's not easy."
"I wasn't saying..."
"I-I know. And I've thought about letting that idea go. But I don't want to."
"You may have to. Things aren't as simple as four words. I don't think they ever were."
"Do you think I don't belong here?" Morgan asked sharply.
"Making it now, do you really think you can do that without getting blood on your hands? My five year old couldn't even do it."
"I don't know." Morgan shrugged, and Rick sighed, getting up with a slight grunt.
"I'm making her some real lunch." He declared, walking away to the kitchen.
"I'll get Judith and see myself out. I said I'd watch her." Carol explained to Michonne before getting Judith and leaving.
"She's killed? Two? Two people?" Morgan asked Michonne quietly.
"Yeah. She's had a hard start to life. And she has had too much hard stuff. She's gone through enough for a lifetime." Michonne whispered shakily.
"I've not seen a kid her age for years. They're rare."
"I just want her to have the chance to grow up. She can't do that if bad people like the ones you didn't kill come back and kill her."
"Okay. I'll see you soon." Morgan nodded, ruffling Mary's hair, and leaving. As soon as he was gone, Rick came back with two bowls of soup.
"Here. Eat." He ordered, passing one to Mary and the other to Michonne.
"Thanks." Michonne smiled softly, putting her bowl on the table and sitting Mary on her own chair.
"Hey. Earth to Mary Moo." Rick laughed, and Mary's head snapped up to look at him.
"What?"
"Lunch time."
"Thank you." Mary smiled, eating the soup quietly, still watching her film.
"Are you not eating?" Michonne asked Rick with raised eyebrows.
"I'm fine. I had a good breakfast. Should save the rations." Rick shrugged. Michonne rolled her eyes, and tipped half of her soup into an empty cup beside her.
"Eat." She ordered.
"Yes ma'am." Rick sighed, knowing there was no hope for him in an argument with Michonne. They ate, then Rick and Michonne wandered outside, Mary following them, leaving her tablet behind, needing a break from the electronics.
"What do we do?" Rick sighed, looking at the walls, as Mary drove her plastic cars up and down the porch.
"I don't... I don't know," Michonne whispered, running a hand through her hair, "we could just wait it out."
"If we can somehow get outside the walls, get back to our cars at the quarry, we could use them to draw them away."
"We'll set up more watch points. Coordinate the shooting of guns and flares so we could pull them out in even directions."
"We'd need to get all our people on it. Carl, Tara, Rosita, Carol."
"Me!" Mary offered happily.
"No." Rick and Michonne replied in unison.
"What about everybody else?" Michonne asked with a sigh.
"Well, let's just keep this to our own for now."
"Really?" Michonne sighed tiredly.
"Look, if we had the time to bring the people along, sure. But we haven't had a chance to catch our breath."
"Really?" Michonne sighed again, "We're in here together. We're catching our breath right now. Anything else is just excuses."
Rick nodded slowly, and Mary walked over to him, clambering up his arm, noticing Deanna. "Daddy! Deanna."
"Deanna." Rick nodded softly, seeing the older woman walking over to the porch.
"Rick."
"What's that?" Rick asked, nodding to a large piece of paper in Deanna's hand.
"Plans for the expansion." She smiled.
"We got a few other things on our plate right now." Rick pointed out with a roll of his eyes.
"I know," Deanna nodded, passing them to Michonne, "these are for what Alexandria can be after this. Because one way or another, there's gonna be an after this." With that, Deanna left, leaving Michonne holding the plans, Mary peering at them, wanting to look at her future.
"You gonna look?" Michonne asked Rick with a slight smile.
"No. I'm gonna go build some braces. For the wall. Can you watch Mary? I don't want her at the walls."
"I wanna stay with you." Mary whined, pouting childishly.
"No, not by the walls. I don't want you there. You can stay with Mishy."
"Hey, we can do some fun stuff. And play with Bertie." Michonne smiled. Mary sighed, then nodded, hugging her father goodbye. Rick left, and Mary sulked into the house, coming back with Bertie and a tennis ball. She threw it with a smile, letting Bertie chase it wildly.
"You okay, Moo?" Michonne checked, looking up from Deanna's plans.
"Yeah. I might rename Bertie to be Snow White."
"I might rename you to Silly Billy." Michonne teased, making Mary giggle.
"Can I see the plans?" Mary asked, walking over to sit next to Michonne, Bertie obediently sitting next to his owner.
"Yeah. Look at all these ideas. We can grow food."
"Can we make a swimming pool?"
"Maybe. I bet we could get a slide. Maybe a swing, a play area. They'll have those in shops still." Michonne suggested.
"I bet Glenn would get me one." Mary sighed.
"Yeah. Maybe." Michonne whispered, putting her arm around Mary's skinny shoulders.
"Mishy? What's that?" Mary asked, suddenly giddy.
"I don't know. Where?"
"There!" Mary laughed, pointing up at the sky, to some green balloons floating in the sky. "Mishy? Is that Glenn's sign?"
"I... It... It might be. I think that might be." Michonne grinned, standing up to look better.
Then something crashed onto the floor, and they saw the cloud of dust as debris from the porch. And they heard the screaming. They heard the Walkers groaning. And they knew. They knew the wall was down.