Broken

Helping

"Can I go with you?" Judith asks, I turn to look at her. "You're gonna have to ask your mom," I say. I look at the chart on the wall, its Carl's night to do dishes. She nods and thinks for a moment.

"When are you gonna have a baby?" she questions. I smile, "Sometimes people can't have babies," I run my hand over her long dark hair. "Are you one of those people?" she asks, "Yeah, but I have Julia," I say. Judith jumps off the dinning room table.

"Julia! Mika! Let's go, you have school!" I yell. I hear three sets of feet instead of two, "Morning girls and Alya," I say to the three girls that are at the bottom of the stairs. "Oh, yeah she spent the night," Mika says as she grabs her bag. "Wait outside," I tell the girls.

I grab Mika's arm before she can sneak away, "Is she gonna stay here every night?" I question. "No we can go to her house," she says, "I don't have a problem with you two hanging out. I might have a problem if you two are doing something you shouldn't," I say.

"We aren't doing anything," she says. I nod and start toward the door. "That's a nice hickey Mik," I say before I walk out the door.

Alya blushes red, I take Julia's hand and we walk down the porch steps. I walk her to school, Rosie and I talk for a moment,  "Thanks for watching her after school again," I say.

 "No problem, I know Alya's been staying at your place a lot lately," Rosie says. "Well I'm happy to have her," I say with a smile. 

"Come on red!" Eugene yells, "I'll be back later to pick her up," I say as I wave goodbye to my daughter. I jog to catch up with Eugene and Aaron, "Just hunting today?" I question. Eugene nods, "We're running low on meat provisions."

"I thought Carl was supposed to be coming," Aaron says. I shake my head, "Yeah but he decided to go on a run," I say, Aaron nods in understanding. "Hey wait!" Judith yells as she runs toward us.

"Mom said that you were in charge and you have permission to drown me," she says as she falls into step beside me. "Rosita's driving the wagon," Eugene says. 

Aaron and I fall behind the group, "How's Jesus?" I ask quietly, Aaron smiles, "He's good. We're good," Aaron says. "I'm glad," I say, "Does Gracie remember him?" I ask, "No," he says. "

We get to a clearing, Rosita parks the wagon. "I'll stay here," she says. Aaron nods we split off into smaller groups, close enough to see each other. A gun goes off, Judith and I go toward the loud sound. 

Eugene shot a large buck, him and the others examine it. I watch as Judith sneaks behind a tree before running off. "Jude," I mutter as I roll my eyes. I follow after her into the woods, "Jude," I call out.

A yell for help make a bubble of panic swell in my chest. Bile threatens to crawl up my throat. But Judith keeps going, she bounds toward the noise, I chase after her. 

A walker moves toward her, she stabs a walker, her hat falls to the ground. It gives me time to catch up with her. I shoot one with an arrow before it can get to her. 

"What the hell Jude?" I say, "Come on, they need help," Judith says. I bend down to hand her, her hat. Everything is telling me to go but Michonne's rules. 

"You know the rules," I say, but Judith grabs my arm. I follow her toward the noise . In the middle of a field there's a group of five people being surrounded by walkers. "Stay here," I say to Judith as I run toward them, I take out my knife. I kill enough walkers for the group to get through. 

"This way!" Judith yells when we break through the small heard. One woman in the group falls to the ground. "Miko!" one of the other women yells. I grab her one arm to help her up. we're almost into the forest. 

I pull her up with the help of a man in the group. "Come on," I say as I drag her along with the man. 

"What are your names?" the man asks. "I'm Judith Grimes and this is Elaine Grimes," Judith introduces.

"I'm a doctor," I say gently as I help the girl named Miko to the ground, she must've hit her head when she fell in the field.

I place my hands on either side of her face to examine the wound, it's already bruised and blood is leaking down he forehead. I dig in my bag to find a bandana. "What's your name?" I ask her as I dab the blood from her face, "Yumiko," she says. I can hear the group calling to us. 

"I'm Luke," the man says, "That's Magna," he says pointing to a woman with paisley tattoos and curly brown hair. "They're Kelly and Connie," he says pointing to a pair of dark-skinned women. One has poofy hair pulled into a bun and the other has short hair.

They both wave, I can hear Rosita and the others calling for us. I grab Yumiko's arm, "We need to go, more walkers are coming," I say. 

Luke grabs her other arm, we start walking toward the sound of our group. "Elaine, Judith, what are you doing?" Aaron asks, he stops in front of us. I shake my head.

"They need help Aaron, she's hurt and more walkers are coming," Judith says. "That's a breach of safety protocol," he says. 

Eugene drops his deer and moves forward with his knife. "We can't, you know that," Aaron says. "I know," I say. Judith takes a canteen from Rosita's bag, she hands it to me.

"Drink," I say to Yumiko as I hand it to her, she takes it and chugs some down. "They're all dehydrated and she has a head injury, we need to get her to the wagon," I say. "Fine," Aaron says as he leads us back to the wagon. 

Eugene takes my place at her left side, "Let Aaron help her," I say to Luke. Luke nods as he backs away, Aaron takes his place. The two men lead her to the wagon.

"I have to go with her," Magna says as Eugene and Aaron put her in the wagon. "You have to give up your weapons. We can't just bring armed strangers home," I say.

The two women who I assume are sisters are signing back and forth to each other. Kelly the youngest in the group is the first to give up her weapons. She gives a nod to Magna and comes over to the wagon, "Can I ride with her?" she asks. 

Rosita shakes her head, "You have to have your eyes covered," she says. "No way," Magna says, "It's protocol, you don't do it you can't come with us," Aaron says. "Magna," Yumiko mutters sternly from the wagon.

I grab cloth bags from the wagon. I hand each of them a bag, I gently take Connie's hand as we begin walking. She seems shaken that we have to take sight. I take her hand and hold it as we walk, Connie and I stay side by side until we get closer home.