𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒍𝒇 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 ➪ «𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑦𝑙 𝑑𝑖𝑥𝑜𝑛»

ch. XLIII - 《frog in the well》

oOo

"So, let me get this straight, bro. There's a walker inside the water well? Is it- Have we been drinking from that water?" Alice's voice cracked as she held a hand up to her belly and the other to her tightened lips, feeling like her lunch would catapult out of her stomach at any given time.

Felix stared back at her, the curl of his lips mirroring her disgust as he shrugged heavily. Alice felt the turmoil burn in her gut and rise up her throat and had to swallow hard. "Oh my God." She took a couple of deep breaths, then said, "I gotta see that shit."

Felix walked by her side, telling them of their unsuccessful attempts to lasso a rope around the walker, then, as an afterthought, he added, "But like, can you even call it a walker if all it does is splatter around in the water some."

"A splatterer, a kiddie-pool-swimmer, one of the shallow-enders?" Okay, Alice knew their jokes were inappropriate considering the situation, but if not now, when? She needed to cope somehow; idiotic humor was all she and her brother had left in reserve.

The warm yellow sunlight was beating down on the group as they stood around the well-hole, staring down into it with grim concentration. T-Dog was holding a fishing cane, which in itself was funny enough that it didn't need mentioning, and Shane was dangling some rope over the edge.

"How's the swimmer, people?" she asked once she and Felix were close enough to step in next to them and look into the dark wet abyss. Alice's disgust returned thousandfold, dragging itself out with an involuntary gag.

Standard walkers were already repulsive enough; filthy, decomposing carcasses – but this bitch was on another level. It reminded her of a part of The Last of Us that she'd played for Felix – he'd tried just playing it through with her in the room, but had still been too scared, so she'd had to do it in his stead – and there had been a part when she was down in the sewers, and there was an acid-vomiting water zombie that she had to either kill or go around, she couldn't remember the details.

The only thing missing was really the vomiting. It was so swollen and grey and weird. It kinda looked like Michelin's mascot's uglier drug-addict brother. On some really heavy drugs.

And then she saw that the reason T-Dog was holding a fishing cane was that there was some ham tied to the end of the nylon string. It hit the swimmer in the face once or twice, but it didn't take notice and continued to claw at the stone walls with its peeling sausage fingers.

"Swimmer?" Glenn asked, acknowledging their presence. "We took to floater, but swimmer sounds less fecal."

Andrea shot him a glare.

Felix nodded at Glenn's commentary. "Hmm, floater's appropriate, though. It does look like someone forgot to flush the toilet."

Alice stifled a snicker, finding Andrea's reaction humorous as she took the turn to glare at her brother.

"Boys, really?" she asked.

"What, so poop – result of a natural body function – is more revolting to you than that bish down there?" Alice asked bitingly, really disliking Andrea's tone.

She had no sympathy for the woman's situation, not when she'd lost so much as well.

Andrea didn't respond, sparing her an indifferent glance. That only succeeded in fanning the flames of Alice's anger higher. Her brow flattened, and she opened her mouth for a biting remark, but Felix grabbed her upper arm with a shake of his head. It's not worth it, his dark eyes said.

Alice took a deep breath. He was right. Andrea wasn't worth a second thought. She loathed to admit it, but she was glad he was there to anchor her while the rein on her emotions was loose. But she hated the fact that they were loose to begin with even more.