A War On Her World | TWD: D. Dixon

Ch. 15

Everyone was gathered around the freshly filled in grave -Dales grave. He was situated near the already grass covered ones of which belonged to Sophia, Shawn, Annete and Otis; Family they had buried only a week prior.

Surrounding the newly formed tomb were stones identical to the graves adjacent to it. The stones stood tall against the flat ground, built like a wall as if to protect their occupants while they slept. At least that's what Elizabeth was telling herself to calm her nerves as she gripped Benji's hand, absentmindedly staring at the flowers at the head of the graves.

It wasn't much to replace the headstone but it was something nice. The flowers sat in little glass jars, used to bring some life to the dead, along with making it easier to maintain them.

Once everyone had settled down, Rick began to speak for the recently deceased "Dale could... could get under your skin." He looked from where Dale now rested, out at the group who stood mournfully around in a semicircle, surrounding the graves.

"He sure got under mine." Rick tried to chuckle at his statement but it came out laced with a type of sadness that made you want to embrace the man and take it away.
"'Cause he wasn't afraid to say exactly what he thought." He paused again

"How he felt... That kind of honesty is rare... and brave." You could hear the strain in Rick's voice as he tried to hold himself together. He succeeded yet the pain still showed, not only in his voice but through the creases between his eyebrows and the frown on his lips.

It broke Elizabeth's heart to witness the loss portrayed on all the familiar faces she had come to care about. Even worse was looking down to see the confused expression her son held; the look of innocence. He didn't know what was going on or where Dale had gone or why we were all sad.

Elizabeth let the first set of tears slip silently down her cheeks, simply pulling Benji closer when he questioned what was wrong.

For the rest of the funeral, she just stood there, her imagination taking over every tiny bit of her focus. Elizabeth missed Dale already and couldn't imagine how it was going to be around the camp without him.

Slowly, one by one everyone bowed their heads as a final goodbye and drifted off in different directions. The woman was left standing in her place far longer than anyone else, she stared down at the grave and tried to memorize the man's kind face. She looked up and finally made a move to follow the rest of the group, dreading having to explain what happened to her son.

Goodbye, Dale.

●

Since the funeral, our group was moved into the main house under Hershel's permission and time continued forwards. My body began to heal as the seasons grew colder and day by day it became clearer that Dales place in the group would never be filled, not by anyone.

With my bruises fading to an ugly yellow from their seemingly permanent dark purple, my role within the group picked up again. I wasn't permitted by Rick to do anything overly strenuous since my right arm was still in its sling but I was allowed to help out, automatically improving my mood.

I found myself assisting Jimmy with securing the windows of the house in preparation for any possible disasters, though it was mostly in case of a walker attack. I had my left hand pushed against one side of a wooden plank to keep it level while Jimmy had his hand against the other side, hammering it to the window frame before he moved onto my end.

It took a while to get all of the windows boarded up but when we finally finished, Jimmy wiped the sweat from his forehead and turned to face me,
"Thank you, ma'am." He said politely