𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊 ✔️- 𝑐. 𝑔𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠

39: Burnt Out

What happens when your loved one, or many of your loved ones, are in serious danger, but you can't do anything to help them no matter how bad you want to? Not too many people know the struggle, but Elle Clarke did. She hated it. She felt useless. Two of her brothers were dying, and she wasn't even allowed into the room with them. 

She insisted on keeping watch, waiting for Daryl and Michonne to get a group together and bring back the medicine the sick people needed to get better. According to Hershel, people were dying quicker than before. It's gotten to the point where their cell doors must be closed at all times, incase they turn and try to feed. Elle made sure that Hershel told her everyone who died, wanting to be sure that Cody and Glenn were still fighting for their lives. They would pull through, they were strong.

"Did you hear?" Sky asked, sitting down next to Elle. They were sitting in the watch tower, their legs hanging off the edge. Sky used her hand to block the midday sun from her eyes, Elle had the hat on her head to do that for her.

"Hear what?" Elle asked, turning to face the brown haired girl.

"Karen and David, their bodies were found this morning." Sky said. Elle looked at her confused.

"Yeah, what else is new? People die all the time."

"No, someone killed them. Burnt them." She finished. Elle's eyes widened.

"Woah, seriously?!" Sky nodded. "Do they know who did it?" Sky shook her head.

"Rick is working on some sort of investigation to find out who did it. No idea what the punishment will be though." Elle thought to herself for a moment. Who would do that; burn two people and leave the bodies for the group to find? It was sick. Maybe the person who did it had good intentions, but she couldn't think of any reason good enough to excuse the incident. 

"How's quarantine been?" Elle asked, changing the subject away from sick people dying.

"Boring, like always." Sky shrugged. Elle never spent the day quarantining anymore. She only went to the building to sleep. She looked down at her clean shirt to swat a fly away.

"You know, I have never heard your backstory." Elle turned to her.

"I never heard yours."

"I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours." Elle raised an eyebrow.

"Deal." Sky smiled. She looked up st the clouds. The sky was pretty clear that day, and blanketed them in it's gorgeous blue color. "The day it happened, I was baby sitting my little brother. He was four, I was nine. It was a Saturday, so I didn't have school and my parents went into the city to get alone time. Like a date." She explained. Elle nodded, she never knew the days of the week in juvie because she never cared. "Then I remember hearing the bombs being dropped. I looked out the window to see huge fires erupting in the sky. It was night, which only made everything brighter. I tried calling my parents from the house phone but they never picked up." She let out a big sigh. "A few weeks later, my brother got sick. So I tried to go get medicine, and for some stupid reason, I told him to stay in his room and I blocked the door with a chair so he couldn't get out and look for me." Elle hung her head low, listening to Sky's story. It was sad, and made her feel even more lucky that she still had her brothers.

"I killed my first walker on that run. I was terrified but I did it. When I got home, I saw the front door open. Of course, I ran up the stairs thinking my brother got out. When I got to his room, the chair had been knocked aside and the door open. I stepped in his room and saw a walker eating my brother's body. I killed the walker and buried my brother in the backyard. I couldn't stay in the house so I packed a bag and left. I was with a group for a while, but the camp got overrun and I was the only one to make it out alive. Shortly after I left, I saw you, Glenn, and Maggie get kidnapped. Seeing as you were not much older than me and still a kid, I insisted to Michonne that we help you. Even though Michonne was a stranger." She smiled weakly.