JUNIPER. [dixon]

7 | HEAVY

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

FOR A MOMENT, EVERYTHING WAS STILL. Through the ringing in Juniper's ears, she could hardly hear the sobbing coming from the people around her. Carol had taken off, grief blinding her and setting her apart from everyone, after her little girl had stumbled out of the barn― a walker. Rick had unfortunately put her down. Beth was crumbling to pieces in Jimmy's arms, and Maggie knelt with her hands on Hershel's shoulders, the two of them staring in shock. Patricia was covering her face, releasing small, quiet sobs. Charlie had turned away from the bodies entirely, his gaze fixed upon his sister and niece; he couldn't bear to look at what had become of his wife and brother, or of his neighbors, people he had known his entire life. 

But Juniper, she was different. She couldn't look away. Her blue eyes were wide as she stared at the crumpled forms of Tate and Emily. Memories of what had happened on the highway whizzed through her mind, almost like a tv that kept losing its cable, rapidly switching between the channel and a screen of static. Images flashed in her mind, each one making the ache in her heart heavier and heavier. 

It began with Charlie in the driver's seat, cursing at the traffic jam― and Emily sitting next to him, one hand on her small growing belly and the other on his arm, as she spoke calming words to him and reminded him to stay patient.

And then there was Tate, sitting behind the passenger seat, cracking a half-hearted joke about how Charlie had never been patient a day in his life. But he was scared; Juniper could see it in her brother's eyes when he looked over at her, where she was positioned behind Charlie's seat. The fear in them was what made her reach over Bailey's lap and take Tate's hand in hers. 

Then the screaming began. At first it was distant, and they didn't know what was happening. As it grew louder, Emily asked Charlie to turn around, but he couldn't― there were too many vehicles in the way. And then they saw them: the walking corpses, a hoard of them, dead yet moving, smashing through car windows and attacking the people inside.

As the hoard drew closer, Tate was the first to get out of the car, clutching onto his baseball bat. Charlie got out next, quickly running around the car to be at Emily's side. Juniper was the last to get out, Bailey's hand tightly enveloped in one of hers; Tate was quick to take her other free hand, as the five of them tried to run from the gruesome scene. 

But they weren't fast enough. Emily tripped over a body and fell to the ground; she screamed so much, Charlie couldn't get her to snap out of it long enough to move. The others slowed down, wanting to help― and that's what gave a few walkers enough time to try and grab at June and Bailey. Tate hit one with his baseball bat, positioning his body between them and his family; but then three more were there, biting into him viciously. A guttural scream tore from his throat as his hand was yanked out of Juniper's, who cried for her little brother.

Just over to their right, three walkers had attacked Emily from behind just as Charlie had finally pulled her to her feet. One bit into the skin between her neck and shoulder, while another had grabbed her arm and bit into it. As she fell to the ground again, a third walker had fallen on top of her, biting into her stomach and raking its nails across her torso to tear it open. Charlie struggled to use his hunting knife to kill the walkers― it took him a while to figure out that he had to stab through their brain. When he succeeded, he clutched his wife to his chest and cried, realizing there was nothing he could do to save her.