𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙠 ↠ 𝘤.𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴

5: We Can't Stay

Amy was dead, according to multiple witnesses, she was the first. Rick and Shane have been arguing whether everyone goes to the CDC, or Fort Benning. Everyone was dragging bodies into piles and burning them.

"No! Our people go over there! We don't burn them, we bury them." Glenn raised his voice, almost choking on his words as his voice cracked. Elle walked over to see Daryl and Morales about to burn one of the campers who died, seeing this was what was upsetting Glenn.

"Glenn, it's okay. We'll bury them." She said trying to calm him down. Daryl and Morales dragged the body to the truck, rolling their eyes, where they were going to drive them up the hill where Jim dug a bunch of holes- graves. He said he had a dream where this would happen, but nobody listened. Elle wiped at her hands, in attempt to get the blood off. Her clothes were covered in blood. After Andrea buried Amy, everyone decided it would be best to give each other space. Elle went to her shared tent and lied down, sighing. A ton of stress was put on her in the last twenty-four hours, and now that she had time to herself to think. She let a tear roll down her face, she was still a kid, she gets to cry. She lost her family, while all the kids here had their parents. It was her fault she didn't get to say goodbye to her parents .

She could hear Glenn come into the tent and throw himself on his cot, evidence of the fact that he was exhausted from hauling corpses around all morning. Elle continued to lay facing the wall of the tent.

"You okay?" He asked her.

"It's just been a long couple of days." She responded quietly.

"Yeah." He agreed.

"I'm going for a walk." She said sitting up.

"I don't think that's a good idea." Glenn warned, sitting up as well as he watched her unzip the tent.

"I'm just going down to the quarry- it's no big deal." She said walking outside before he could respond. She grabbed her dagger and started walking down to the water.

After about ten minutes, she made it to the bottom. She sat down and took her socks and shoes off, letting the water run over her feet. It was nice. She pulled her knees to her chest and then buried her head, crying. She cried and cried. She wasn't crying because she was upset, she was crying because it's been built up inside of her.

After about ten minutes of that, she wiped her face. She tied her hair back, sticking any front pieces behind her ears, and sat there. She was running the blade of her knife on her finger.

She must've been down here all day, because when she looked up at the sky, it was beginning to turn pink. She pulled her socks and shoes back on and started making her way back up to camp.

When she reached the top, nobody even seemed to noticed she was gone. Good. She missed the funeral that was held for the people who died the previous night. She went back into her tent and lied down.

"Elle, you want food?" She heard Rick ask from outside.

"I'm good." She said quietly. He decided to not push it and his footsteps could be heard departing. Elle pulled the blanket over her and fell asleep.

Sleep. It was nice. Nobody was trying to kill her. The silence was amazing. It was calm.

"Elle wake up. We're leaving soon." Glenn said shaking her arm. She groaned as she sat up, stretching.

"Where to?" She asked, having yet to open her eyes.

"CDC." She nodded. He stepped out so she could get changed. She pulled on a clean pair of pants and a tee shirt, she tied her hair back. She packed what little stuff she had, shoving them in her backpack.

She looked around the tent to see if she was missing anything. Her eyes landed on the sheriff hat, she walked over and picked it up.

"You got everything?" Glenn asked, sticking his head in. She nodded and stepped out so he could start disassembling the tent.

She learned that Jim was bit, Daryl tried to kill him— she had missed a lot.

She threw her backpack in the RV before walking over to Rick. "I believe this belongs to you." She said, holding the hat out.

"Thank you." He said putting it on his head, following with a pat on her back. He went over to the red sports car and taped a map to it. He wrote

"Morgan not safe here, going to CDC"

. And just like that, they were gone. Morales and his family left, claimed they had family else where. Elle sat in the RV with Glenn, Andrea, Jacqui, and Jim. Dale was driving. Rick, Carl, Lori, Carol, and Sophia were in one car, Shane and T-Dog in another, while Daryl led the way on his motorcycle.

Elle was fidgeting with her fingers when Jacqui told Dale to stop. He stopped the RV and everyone else was questioning why. Jacqui said Jim wasn't going to make the trip, he wants the group to leave him.

After saying their goodbyes, they were on the road again. She decided to read one of the comics Carl had lent her. She read through the whole thing and Glenn tapped her shoulder. She looked up to not only see that it was almost dark, but to see they were there.

They were at the CDC. She grabbed my bag and stepped out, and immediately started coughing. There were dead people everywhere and it stunk. Everyone else covered their mouths as well while they walked up to the door. Rick started banging on the door.

"Walkers." Daryl warned, turning to face the few undead that started wandering towards them.

"Rick come on, there's nobody here." Shane said, trying to pull his friend away.

"Where are we supposed to go?" Lori asked, pulling Carl towards her.

"Fort Benning is 125 miles away, we don't have the gas or supplies." Glenn argued.

"We can't be so close to the city after dark." Someone spoke up. As they were about to walk away and back to their vehicles, Elle saw slight movement in the corner of her eye. A camera. Rick seemed to notice it as well.

"The camera, it moved." Rick said, pointing at it.

"You imagined it." Dale tried to reason.

"No, I saw it too." Elle said, backing Rick up. He began banging on the door again.

"We have women, and children! Please." He yelled. Shane started dragging him away.

"You're killing us!" Rick yelled. Just as they were about to walk off, the doors opened. It was a bright light, almost blinding.

_______________________
Crying can be exhausting.

rewritten (poorly): April 10, 2022

these chapters are so bad lmao