The air became warm and the nature around you lit up. A high flame rose in the dense foliage and spread slowly. You immediately reached the others, walked down the corridor, ignoring the questions and chatter of others. You all wondered what had happened, what could happen there, and not very far away. The suspicion immediately fell on Gareth and his gang. Your heart started to beat incredibly fast.

"What the hell is going on here?", Michonne asked, as if some of you had an idea.

"I don't know.", Rick said worriedly: "But we should check it out."

"Are you sure?", Sam asked: "Maybe we should barricade ourselves here."

"And wait?", Carol answered: "No, no way."

"It's also possible that someone needs help, we can not just stay here and do nothing.", you added.

"Y/N 's right, we gotta go.", urged Daryl.

Rick divided you into two groups. You, Daryl, Tyreese and Sasha would have gone ahead with him while the others defended the church. But Carl protested.

"But Dad, I want to go too! I can help!"

"I want you to stay with your sister and Beth, you have to protect them and I know you can do it, okay?"

It seemed strange to you that he hadn't brought Michonne with him. But when you thought about it, you needed someone who could deal with the situation in case of real danger, and she was undoubtedly capable of doing so.

"Nonsense!", Sam shouted: "Maybe someone just threw a Molotov cocktail and we only overreact."

"Do ya' really think such an explosion with such high flames 's due to a fuckin' Molotov?", Daryl shouted at him.

You admired Daryl at that moment and Sam fell silent. You walked quickly and carefully through the dense trees, careful not to trip. Sasha and her brother separated from you to take care of the fire. As soon as you, Rick, and Daryl arrived at the blast site, you noticed immediately that a truck had fallen on a side street. Someone had deliberately set fire to the vehicle and suddenly a huge herd of walkers appeared along the road, attracted by the loud noise.

"It's a damn trap!", the archer yelled angrily.

"They wanted us here for a reason.", Rick said, looking around. Then you heard gunshots nearby.

"Damn shit!", you exclaimed: "They wanted to separate us! We must go back immediately!"

You didn't wait a minute longer and ran like crazy, trying to get to the church as soon as possible. The shots undoubtedly showed that Tyreese and Sasha already had a chance to collide with the cannibals. You didn't feel any pain in your leg right now, but you knew it was just adrenaline. As you emerged from the forest, you noticed Michonne running toward Sasha, who was holding her left arm with a sore face. She had been hit.

"Sasha, Michonne!", Rick yelled: "Where's Tyreese?"

Carl, flanked by Carol, came out of the church and held a pistol in his hand.

"What happened?", the boy shouted.

"It 's a damn trap.", Daryl exposed.

"They're coming.", Sasha said: "We've been watching some of them closely, but as soon as we realized that others are coming here, we immediately turned around to warn you all. Tyreese was right behind me... I-... "

You saw how she had dreaded her brother's life, she was afraid that something had happened to him. Michonne flinched and avoided running to find him. You had to position yourselves and be prepared. A shot echoed... Someone had shot in the air. The same one who came to you. Gareth.

"What a beautiful place!", he said ironically, aided by his men: "Wouldn't it be nice if this place were destroyed and surrounded by walkers?"

Then, as they were closer and more visible, you saw Tyreese's profile. The boss aimed a gun at the back of his head and challenged you. Sasha immediately took the shotgun with the intention of shooting without losing herself in unnecessary conversation, but Gareth stopped her.

"You shoot and I do the same."

You all exchanged looks, talking without opening your mouths. It was a very delicate situation, difficult to manage.

"What do you want?", Rick asked: "We can find an agreement."

You immediately turned towards the sheriff, incredulous to have heard such words. Gareth smiled.

"Are you crazy?", Carl protested.

You understood his astonishment, but you were sure Rick had a plan. Carol seemed to tremble, she would still resist. Daryl, on the other hand, was immobilized. He wanted to break the faces of these soulless monsters, but a naive act would have given the context a decidedly bitter turn.

"What I want? That seems obvious.", he pointed out to you: "I want to see you all dead."

You had no time to scream when the bullet came out of the barrel and pierced Tyreese's skull, which fell to the ground like a dry autumn leaf. Sasha screamed and shot random shots as if she had a machine gun in her hand. Michonne tried to calm her, but rightly there was little to do. Rick lunged at Gareth and swung his machete. A few of them fell to the ground and were hit by Sasha's bullets. You lunged at them and stabbed them savagely, as if you wanted to punish them for any life they had unfairly appropriated. The hangmen were the victims. Gabriel looked at you in horror from the window. Instinctively, you looked at your body and came back to reality for a moment. You jumped up and shook your head as if to deny it. It seemed impossible to believe that you had such anger and frustration in you. You looked around and hoped that no one had seen your scene, but you were ironically calmed by this worry. You weren't the one who did the worst. Gareth was dead and lying on the ground. His body, his face was no longer recognizable. Rick massacred him... The fight ended earlier than you thought, but none of you seemed to have understood. You killed these monsters without realizing and it was liberating. Your bloodied hands began to tremble and you moved away from this carcass. Meanwhile, Carl was petrified. He glared at his father with icy eyes and could not understand if he was disgusted or satisfied. You heard a hysterical scream and noticed that Sasha was lying on the ground in the damp grass. She embraced her brother and tried to cleanse the wound on his head as if it were possible to save him. You wanted to reach her, but your legs didn't move. Then you saw Sam crouching at the corner of the building. You forced yourself and managed to get closer, though everything seemed confused.

"Sam, are you okay?", you stammered.

Whenever you were confronted with a lot of blood, your brain went haywire. You were traumatized.

"Shit, look at you...", he said shocked: "You're a monster like all of them.", he grunted and fled to church.

You started hyperventilating and tried to master this panic attack to slowly regain control of your breathing. Rick threw the machete far away and dropped to the ground. He held his head in his bloody hands. Daryl got his arrows back and looked around contentedly. But when your eyes met, he came to meet you.

"Are ya' wounded?", he asked, beginning to feel your clothes and examine you.

You pushed his hands away. "That's not my blood."

He frowned.

"So?", he asked innocently. You got nervous. How could he be so calm?

"Tyreese is dead and a bunch of walkers is around here... And we've done a massacre."

He grabbed your shoulders and tried to shake you.

"We did what we had to do 'nd ya' know that."

You looked down and he left, helped Carol to move Sasha away from Tyreese's body. Daryl's words were buzzing in your head. Nevertheless, you rejected these thoughts and joined Rick. There was a need for a plan. You couldn't stay here any longer. You had to move and leave. The sheriff stared blankly at what was left of Gareth, ignoring your words.

You grabbed him: "Damn it Rick, listen to me!", you repeated: "We have to go, we can not stay here."

The smell of ashes and death was another proof of how dangerous it was to stay.

"It's over, it's all over...", he mumbled.

He didn't hear you anymore. So you took a deep breath and hit his cheek with the palm of your hand. He responded immediately, grabbed your wrist and looked at you.

"You forced me.", you answered.

He stood up as if he had just awakened from a nightmare.

"We take what we can carry and go, we can't lose time."

He nodded.

"Carl, go and get your sister. Daryl, get our things. Michonne, get the ammunition. Carol, get Gabriel, Sam and-..."

Beth... Shit... You had no way to move Beth except to carry her. But it would have been a great physical effort both for her and for the volunteers. You looked at each other for a solution when the roar of an engine alarmed you. A fire truck appeared at the clearing. Rick aimed, but immediately he lowered the weapon again. You saw Abraham driving it. Eugene climbed onto the roof of the car and fumbled around until he released a huge jet of water. Some burning trees went out. While the two men were responsible to the fire, Rosita, Tara, Maggie, and Glenn ran down to find out what was going on. Once they saw the dead bodies, it was easy to know what had happened.
None of you dared to say anything until Maggie asked a question:

"Where is my sister?"

~

The first morning light mingled with the smoke that was still in the air. The fire had been extinguished, and most walkers that caught fire turned away. Maggie had locked herself in her sister's room and still not left it. And Abraham was ridiculed... Eugene was not what he said, what he was. You weren't really surprised, it almost seemed obvious that this situation had something strange about it. In any case, you were at the point, with no hope and no goal. You only decided to move. You threw away your worn out clothes and put on your military shit, along with some worn black jeans. Purifying all the blood had literally relieved you, for it was as if you had been cleansed of death and sin. You flushed your pale face, then left the bathroom and someone tapped your shoulder.

"Hello.", Sam said: "I did not mean it that way..."

"But you said it.", you replied, evasive.

He stood still and you lay down on one of the benches and stared at the ceiling beams. It was terrible to wait, desperate, because you could do nothing. This feeling devoured you from the inside.

"Do you want to talk?", Father Gabriel asked.

"No, thank you. Ask someone else."

Sasha, for example. She had spent the whole night in a corner of the church without speaking to anyone, even though you had come to her in shifts. As if you said the opposite, he was sitting next to your feet.

"You see, they are not like you."

"I'm a monster."

He looked at you with an indecipherable expression and made you feel uncomfortable.

"I have seen what you have done, and I do not want to deny the bestiality of your actions. We had demons in front of the house of the Lord."

"Fuck off."

He tilted his head slightly, offended by your annoyance.

"The fact is that unlike the others, you understood the horror."

"Do you think they liked it?", you asked angrily.

"I'm just saying that they've already accepted the killing for joy. Think about it, you should go while you still can.", he replied, and walked away without giving you the opportunity to respond in the same way.

You would never have left these people even though you had precarious bonds with some of them. Still, these people are your new family.

"What did that fuckin' bastard want?", Daryl surprised you and stood behind you.

"Nothing special.", you lied.

"As if... He's afraid."

You shrugged and he cleared his throat.

"What's goin' on between ya' 'nd him?", he asked pointing to Rick and you looked at him startled.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

In fact, you prayed with yourself. You hoped he had not seen anything and not known about it.

"Do ya' think I'm completely stupid?", he said angrily: "I saw ya' gettin' started, ya' rushed to him to forget 'bout that famous guy in the notebook who's killed by Joe's people!"

Daryl seemed pleased to have so embarrassed you.

"It's Rick who came up to me and-..."

But his eyes were suddenly cold as ice. He became serious immediately. Then you understood, it was a clever trap from him to see if anything really had happened between you and the sheriff, more than friendship. Daryl had only the suspicion, but now he had a confirmation.

"Damn, I really can't believe it.", he joked: "Didn't expect ya' to be such a fuckin'...", he started, but did not finish the sentence.

You knew what he was going to say and insisted that he finish the sentence.

"Such a simple girl.", he smiled.

You wanted to punch him in the face but stopped yourself. You didn't want to attract attention, and it wasn't time to argue like kids.

"That's typical of you, you're just talking shit. You should avoid condemning us because you don't even know what you're talking about. You just seem jealous.", you said calmly.

He brushed his hair away from his forehead and pretended he was not impressed at all.

"Jealous? I wouldn't fuck ya', even if ya' were the last woman on this damn world!", he grinned.

"Good to know. At least I can remove something like you from the list.", you replied, smiling relaxed.

You then stood up, but as soon as you took a step, the door opened and Maggie appeared with tears in her eyes, causing her to fall to her knees. Beth was gone... Each hastened to support her, to make it clear to her that she was not alone, that you could do it together and you would face anything. Instead, you stopped at a distance and watched this slow motion scene. You knew that all these people, though they felt their affection and gratitude for her, didn't really comfort her. It was a mess of emotions that never ended.

~

The sun stood out on this bright surface, crossed by delicate white clouds. You had been silent for hours and you were tired of staring at the muddy ground. Also, the trees or some walkers weren't more interesting. A small group of them followed you at a very limited speed, but you were ahead, so you had no reason to be worried. You would have had to worry about it later when you needed a break. You had been traveling for days and had to keep your energy as good as possible. For this reason, you dragged on and looked up to the sky, as if you wanted to pretend that nothing was near you. You remember those moments when you were a child, when you lay in the garden next to your mother, and you vied to see as many animals as possible in those faded outlines of the clouds... Sasha and Maggie closed the line and moved forward as if they had been pushed. Glenn occasionally turned to look for signs that told him he could walk beside his beloved wife, but she ignored him. Rick dominated the head of the group, flanked by Michonne, while Carl and Carol followed him confidently, hoping to find a decent place. Tara tried to comfort Eugene, who looked with regret at Abraham. Instead, Rosita tried to make him think, whispering words that were incomprehensible to you at that distance. Daryl went and disappeared from time to time, threw himself into the forest and returned after a mile and then did the same again. It was almost amusing to imagine where he would come out the next time. Sam was ahead of you, but sometimes he asked you to talk, and you pretended not to notice him. He now threw himself back to your side and smiled.

"Nice day, huh?", he said to make you talk.

"Seriously?", you asked annoyed: "You can't think of anything else?"

He sighed and looked down. "I'm here to apologize again, I did not mean to say it, I swear it, I'm sorry... I'm sorry.", he said without breathing.

You grabbed his arm and prevented him from endlessly repeating those words.

"It's forgotten, okay?"

He nodded silently and sincerely smiled. You noticed that Gabriel walked slowly, holding the Bible. You were sure he repeated a prayer for himself, though you didn't see his lips move. Fortunately, Sam seemed to have weighed his conscience, and he didn't bother you with other futile speeches, but just stayed silent. You went on a good few hours before your sense of peace was once again destroyed by Sam.

"Hey, what happened to the asshole?", he whispered, referring to Daryl: "Did you make him angry?"

"Does it always have to be my fault?", you said annoyed. Daryl had just emerged from the vegetation with the most surly expression he could have. Sam raised his hands to the sky.

"It's your boyfriend, not mine."

"You're a masochist.", you said, looking at him with hatred and he turned away with a questioning face.

"You really want to be kicked in your damn ass.", you continued: "Otherwise you would stop talking such a bullshit."

"But it seems to me..."

"This damn asshole is not my boyfriend!", you answered angrily.

"Sorry, I didn't want to..."

You took a deep breath, he was unbearable at the moment.

"Fuck! Stop apologizing every few seconds!", you grumbled and hurried to get away from him.

Luckily he did not follow you. He started to annoy you. Suddenly the group stopped and pointed to an area where you could stop to gain some strength. As soon as you sat down, you were exhausted. You opened the backpack in search of water, but the bottle was practically empty. One sip or two remained. None of you spoke or wanted to exchange opinions about what to do. Were you at the limit? Could be... You had been forced to sleep under a stone bridge, with some pebbles and a few branches. Needless to say, you were all very nervous, ready to shoot out of anger for nothing. Without talking about Abraham, who had found a bottle of whiskey somewhere, maybe from a walker. Your stomach growled, reminding you that a day had passed since the last squirrel had been eaten. You were good enough to keep hunger at bay, though, if you had a chance, you could easily devour an ox. But you tried to keep your primary needs under control, hoping to continue as long as necessary. Not ten minutes later, Rick got up and walked down the street. This man exhausted you, but none of you dared to argue with him. You knew it was for your best. You stretched out your limbs and resumed the marathon knowing that you wouldn't find anything that day.

"Y/N.", Glenn said softly: "May I talk to you for a moment?"

It seemed strange that someone wanted to ask permission to speak, but judging by the mood of others, you understood the gesture.

"Of course.", you reassured him.

"I think that may be a strange request...", he admitted: "But I can not speak to Maggie, I don't think I can help her in this regard."

You began to understand what he meant.

"I'll do my best, do not worry.", you consoled him: "Each of us faces these tragedies in its own way."

He thanked you with his eyes. It was obvious how much love he felt for this girl. And it must have been terrible to be powerless. Besides, you would have liked to talk to Sasha as well. Just when you wanted to stop to allow Maggie to join you, she coughed softly, trying not to be heard. You realized how thirsty she was, judging by the movements of her bottle that hung from the side.

"Hey... Do you want a sip?"

She shook her head as you had expected.

"No, keep it for yourself, thanks anyway."

"I still have water, it's not a problem.", you lied.

Then she changed her mind and carefully took your bottle out of your hands. You kept her pace without saying a word, hoping that she would take the first step. You were aware that a thought came to her mind, but you weren't sure she wanted to reveal it to you.

"Y/N...", she sighed and surprised you: "I talked to Beth a lot... Before she...", she said and stopped. "And she said you found her to bring her to the church."

"Maggie..."

"No.", she replied, a touch of a smile on her trembling lips: "I wanted to thank you..."

You wanted to hug her, hold her close to you as if she were an older sister of yours. But you tried to be discreet. You then found the courage and reached out a hand. You wanted her to understand that you were there, that you knew how she felt. You were sure Glenn had been reporting something about you when you were in the prison, about your story.

"Maggie, you did not have to thank me... But I understand it and she was not alone. Rick, Michonne, Sam... We immediately looked for her."

She smiled.

"But...", you continued: "And I'll be honest. Please don't feel guilty. It will do you good and you'll be happier if you work it out, because unfortunately I've did when it was too late."

She hugged you without any ifs or buts.

"I just wanted to protect her, be with her.", she whispered, squeezing you: "But I failed."

"I was with her...", you said: "We haven't failed, Maggie, we have done our best and we must continue to do so. For her, but also for us."

You glanced at Glenn as you stroked Maggie's back and felt her tears on your neck. She was far away with her thoughts, but judging by the movement of her lips, you recognized two words: Thank you.