Perfect Little Accident

By nightfall, we had travelled into a quaint, deserted town. The majority of the day was spent in silence after the fight between Rigs and I. I mean, they got what they wanted, my story. They knew who I was now, where I came from, and whether they liked it or not they knew my people.

From the outskirts, the town seemed fairly quiet. We don't know what lays behind each wall of the buildings, but as far as we could tell there were no echoes of moans rumbling through the streets. Collectively, working together for the first time, we cleared one of the buildings to set up camp for the night. It was an old warehouse. There was a decent amount of floor space, but we all huddled together in the middle, not dispersing from one another in case of trouble.

Along the way, we managed to pile together some food for the evening ahead. Collecting berries, plants and roots to make a stew with one of the hares Derek managed to trap the day before. The meat wouldn't stay fresh for long so we had to utilize it now.

After dinner was finished I offered to take the first watch. Even though it felt like ages since I last slept, part of me still didn't entirely trust these people. I don't think that even if I tried to sleep, I'd be able to. So when the topic came up I jumped on it.

I was currently sitting on the windowsill on the upper floor of the building, the height giving me a better view of the surrounding streets. I looked up at the sky, a full moon shining bright above me. The light radiating off of it makes it pretty easy to see over the town.

"Any movement down there?" A voice called out, causing me to whip my head around to see who was there. I was surprised to see Rigs walking over to me, dragging a bucket over to the window and taking a seat.

I shook my head saying no. "Couldn't sleep?" I asked.

"Nah, I can never sleep for more than an hour at a time," he responded. He ran his hands through his long hair, pushing it away from his face. He clearly looked exhausted.

"Even in Woodbury?" I asked.

"No, there I could sleep. But out here, my body is constantly jerking me awake."

"That's the fear," I said, "it's a good thing." It was quiet for a moment, the air thick with tension from earlier. "How'd you end up in Woodbury?" I asked. If he wanted to know so much about me, then why couldn't I do the same back to him?

"The same way everyone does," he said, "they find you in a situation where their refugee is your only option. Like they are your saving grace, which at that point they pretty much are. That's why it made it so hard to leave," he explained.

"I thought you said you guys escaped because you were afraid of Rick attacking?" I questioned.

"I had been thinking about leaving for a while. I mean I had no idea that The Governor was the way you described him as, but I could still feel something was off about the town. Whenever I mentioned wanting to go, there was always an excuse as to why we had to stay a little longer. It was like I was trapped. And then when Rick showed up and our safety was actually in danger, we used that night for an escape."

"You said we?" I furrowed my brows.

"Yeah, Roni, Juliet, Oliver-"

"No, before that. You said there was always an excuse as to why we had to stay, as in you and someone else?" I questioned further.

"My father, he was there with me," he answered. He dropped his head low with guilt.

"He didn't make it?"

"I never even mentioned the escape to him," he shook his head. "He was older, I knew he wouldn't make it on the outside much longer. Woodbury was where he needed to be." I didn't know what to say. I wanted to tell him how wrong he was about that. He didn't know half of what went on behind those walls. After seeing what The Governor did to his own people, anywhere would have been better than there. "How did you actually end up at Woodbury?" he asked me.

"Merle," I spat, "I was out on a run with my friends Glenn and Maggie when he jumped us. He was the brother of one of our people so Glenn knew him from the beginning and when we wouldn't give up his brother's whereabouts he brought us back to The Governor," I explained. He nodded his head, not asking for the details of my stay in Woodbury. "You know, after everything went down we rescued the remaining members of Woodbury. Rick got them all on a bus and brought them back to our camp."

Rig's head shot up at my revelation, "The remaining?" he questioned.

I twiddled my thumbs together not wanting to tell him, but I had to now. "The Governor killed most of the town after a raid went wrong at our camp." I couldn't make eye contact with him, but I could feel his stare burning a hole in the side of my cheek. My heart sank when my mind flashed back to the day on the road when we found Karen amongst the bloodbath The Governor had unleashed on the innocent. "We got Karen though, Sasha, Tyreese, Lizzie and Mika, Nate-"

"Nate?" Rigs eyes widened when asking.

"Yeah, we still brought a lot of them back with us," I explained.

Rigs laughed, his eyes glassy as he sniffled. A grin flashed across his face as he leaned back, relief washing over him, "Nate is my father," he laughed again, "I was named after him, Nate Jr."

"He's a really nice man, always the first down for breakfast," I smiled.

A relieving laugh came out of him, the first time I had seen any sort of emotion out of Rigs other than anger, "That sounds like him."

A blood-curdling scream coming from downstairs caused the hair on my arms to stand upright. I immediately gripped onto my knife resting beside me. Thinking I got too caught up in conversation I quickly glanced down at the street below, looking for walkers. But there was nothing, the streets were empty.

I followed close behind Rigs, two-stepping it down the stairs. The screaming didn't stop as we rushed to their aid and then a gunshot went off. Despite my view of the street empty, my fear was still true. At least fifteen walkers stumbled across the warehouse floor, the first walker to reach our group sinking its teeth into Juliet's arm. She was the one screaming out for help.

I jumped off of the last step, sprinting across the concrete and sinking the blade of my knife into the back of the walker's skull. The walker sunk on the pavement, its teeth unlatching from Juliet's arm as blood began to spray out. The group seemed to be in shock like they had woken up in a nightmare. Their bodies jumping awake and not fully comprehending the danger around them.

"Paul, your belt! Wrap the top of Juliet's arm now!" I shouted at him over her screeches. She clutched down on the wound, the blood continuing to splatter out through the slits between her fingers.

"Why?!" he questioned. His face told me he was clearly in shock. I left Juliet with Oliver, who cried as he held her head up, telling her "I love you" over and over again.

"Just do it!" I screamed. I got back to my feet, turning to take out the next walker to approach. Rigs, Roni, and Derek made themselves useful as we attempted to take on the small herd. The all to familiar motion set in; slicing, slashing, stabbing. I pinned one walker to the ground, falling on top of it. Its withered-away body cracked when hitting the pavement, multiple bones shattering with the force. I threw my right arm back, coming down with the blade through its right eye.

My head whipped to my right when another gunshot echoed through the room. Derek had fired off another round again. "No! Don't use your gun-" I yelled at him before, but it was too late. More walkers crowded at one of the broken windows, the sound drawing them in. The window was low enough to the ground that they would lean their torso through the gap before falling over the ledge and into the warehouse. That is how they got in undetected.

There were too many now and it wouldn't take long for them to get over to us. My head whipped around knowing that we had to get out of here. I threw myself off of the walker, stumbling back over to Juliet.

"Hold them off!" I shouted at Rigs, Roni, and Derek.

Like I had asked, Paul wrapped his belt tight around the upper part of Juliet's arm, right above the wound. The bleeding had slowed down, the blood only streaming out of her arm instead of spraying now. But that's not why I asked him to do it. My hands fumbled as I reached for the small butcher knife we used for dinner. I gripped the handle tight in my right hand, placing my left on her shoulder to keep it steady. I sucked in a deep breath as I raised the knife, hesitating as my arm rested dormant in the air.

"W-what are you doing?" Oliver stuttered out as he began to piece together what was about to happen.

I released the breath I had been holding, "I'm saving her life," I answered. I threw my arm down as hard as I possibly could, the knife slicing with ease through the skin before hitting the bone.