These Sins of Mine

The only sound I could hear was Maggie's crying coming from within Gabriel's office. Glenn consoled her after Lincoln sat her down and broke the news about Beth. Our good spirits were short-lived for the night, but the conversation needed to happen. The rest of us sat quietly on the pews, no one saying a word about it. Everyone was heartbroken. They were all experiencing the loss of another one of us right now.

My head sprung up at the noise of Carol leaving the church abruptly, the sound of the chapel door slamming on her way out. There was something different about Carol once she came back. She was still the same old Carol I remembered, but something changed inside her. Her eyes were kind and her smile sweet, but there was that split second in between expressions where you could see she was struggling.

Daryl didn't say a word when he got up to go after her. I didn't question it. Daryl and I both held the same relationship with Carol, him maybe even closer to her than I. After we found Sophia in that barn, she really did transform into a motherly figure for both of us. One that Daryl never had and one that I lost.

Lincoln then emerged from the room, rubbing the tears from his eyes as he attempted to collect himself. I stood from the pew, watching as he was the next to leave. I contemplated going after him, to see if he was okay, but instead, I walked up to Gabriel's office. I lightly knocked on the ajar door, making my presence known.

"Glenn," I spoke softly, "Do you mind if I talk to Maggie?" I asked. He looked up at me, his cheeks stained with tears as he held onto Maggie. He nodded his head and stood up from the couch. I grabbed his hand, squeezing it on his way out of the room, leaving me alone with Maggie. This moment brought me back to the very first day I met her. They were different circumstances, but I still remembered looking up at her consoling smile as she handed me the cup of tea as I waited to hear the news about Carl. "I know this is the last thing you want to hear right now, and I know that nothing I can say will help with what you are feeling," I said, my voice low and gentle, "But I do know exactly what you are going through."

There was silence in the air. Maggie hadn't responded, she didn't even look my way. Her arms rested on her knees and her head held low. I just wanted her to know that she had someone in her corner that understands what it's like to lose a sibling. When the silence lasted too long, I made my peace with it and decided to leave her be.

"How did you get through it?" she asked, her voice meek. The question surprised me. "There was a time before you found Lincoln when you thought you were alone," she sniffled, aggressively wiping the tears from her face, "How did you get through it?"

"I was never alone," I answered. "I'm not going to lie, I went through it. I asked myself if this was all even worth it anymore. But I had Glenn, I had Carol, Rick, Daryl, you. I had this family and you still have all of us."

Maggie finally looked at me, her eyes bloodshot, but she nodded. Then she did something she has never done before. She wrapped her arms around me and I embarrassed her. Feeling her body sinking into mine as I hugged her tighter.

"Thank you," she shakily breathed out.

"It's only the truth--"

A commotion coming from outside caused us to jerk our heads towards the door.

"Stop! Don't!" Rosita yelled.

"Sasha put it down!" Tyreese boomed.

Maggie and I both walked out to the front room. Sasha stood in front of Gabriel, her knife held out towards him as he backed up against the railing.

"You show up, we're being watched, and now four of us are gone," she spoke, her voice low and tempered.

"I-- I don't…" Gabriel stuttered.

"Who's out there? Where are our people?!" She yelled.

He raised his hands in defence, pleading that he has no idea what she is talking about.

"Who's gone?" I questioned, my tone worried. I knew that people were filtering in and out earlier, but I assumed they'd be back in no time.

"Bob's gone," Sasha said, not breaking eye contact with Gabriel.

"Carol, Lincoln, and Darly are missing too," Rick said, his teeth gritted together. His eyes as well did not leave Gabriel's face, watching his body language closely. Rick pulled Sasha away from Gabriel, his expression towards Gabriel was blank. I couldn't read what he was about to do. "Why'd you bring us here?" He asked calmly.

"Please, I--"

"You working with someone?"

"I'm alone. I'm alone. I'm always alone," Gabriel stuttered.

"What about the woman in the food bank, Gabriel? What did you do to her? 'You'll burn for this.' That was for you. Why?" Rick questioned. I looked over at Maggie, confused as to what Rick was referring to by that phrase. "What are you going to burn for Gabriel?" Rick then lunged at him, balling his shirt in the palm of his hands and shaking the answer out of him aggressively. "What did you do?" Rick spoke harshly.

Gabriel threw Rick off of him, the tears welling up in his eyes and he struggled for breath. "I lock the doors at night. I always lock the doors at night. I always--" he choked on his words. "They started coming, my congregation. Atlanta was bombed the night before and they were scared. They were-- they were looking for a safe place. And it was so early, and the doors were still locked." Gabriel took a deep breath. "You see… It was my choice. There were so many of them and they were trying to pry the shutters and banging on the siding, screaming at me. And so the dead came for them." His lip quivered, I could see him begin to break down again. "Women, children. Entire families calling my name as they were torn apart, begging me for mercy." Gabriel sobbed as his body crumpled, sliding down the banister onto the floor. "Damning me to hell. I buried their bones. I buried it all. The Lord sent you here to finally punish me." Rick let him be as he cried, cradling himself. "I always lock the doors."

"There's something--" Glenn brought our attention away from Gabriel. It was clear that this man had his fair share of skeletons in his closet from simply being a coward, but he had nothing to do with our people missing. I looked across the room at Glenn as he stared out the window into the dead of the night. "There's someone outside lying in the grass."

Sasha immediately ran for the door, not paying any mind to the dangers of doing that right now. We all ran after her, my hand attaching itself to my holster on the way. She wasn't stopping no matter how much we called after her. She swung open the door screaming. "Bob!"

We followed her out, making our way down the steps and coming face to face with six walkers. They stumbled up the pathway, drawn by the smell of blood. I looked down to see Sasha knelt over top of Bob. My stomach churned at the sight of him sprawled on the front lawn, his left leg cut off from the thigh down and poorly bandaged up.

"His leg," Maggie gasped, staring down at him in utter shock.

"Get Bob inside, we'll take care of them!" Glenn yelled at Tyreese and Abraham. The two men quickly scooped him up, disappearing back into the chapel.

Glenn, Rick, Maggie, and I quickly went for the approaching walkers. I drew my knife from my pocket, shoving the closest walker away from me before sinking my blade into its skull. A gunshot then roared from the bushes, taking out the walker approaching Rick.

"Get inside!" he ordered, as he began to send off rounds in the direction the shots came from.

I took out the final walker to my right, yanking my knife out smoothly and following the rest of the group back inside. Rick wasn't far behind me, slamming the chapel doors shut and locking them up for the night.

We laid Bob down in the middle of the aisle. He was awake, but you could see he was struggling to stay conscious from the loss of blood. Sasha stroked the back of his head, silent tears falling down her cheeks as we huddled around him.

He propped himself up on his elbow as best he could. "I was in the graveyard. Somebody knocked me out," he explained. "I woke up outside this place. It looked like a school." His breathing was shallow and quick, like he was hastily sucking in the air because his body tensed from the pain. "It was that guy… Gareth. And five other ones." My head snapped up at the information, my eyes immediately looking at Rick. My heart raced at the thought of him. All this time we were being watched by them, hunted by them. "They were eating my leg right in front of me. Like it was nothing." Bob's voice cracked, his brows furrowing at the memory of it. "They were all proud like they had it all figured out."

Rick shifted, bringing himself closer to Bob, "Did they have Lincoln? Or Daryl and Carol?"

Bob thought for a second, "Gareth said they ran off, following something."

Everyone looked at me, uneasy. My heart sank. Why would the three of them do that? Why in the middle of the night? When Daryl knew someone was watching us. What could have been so important to leave the group?

Bob groaned. "He's in pain. Do we have anything?" Sasha asked, holding onto Bob to ease him.

"I think there are pill packets in the first aid kit," Rosita confirmed.

"Save 'em," Bob answered, letting out a breath he was holding.

"No," Sasha whined.

"Really," Bob insisted. He then shifted his weight, using his left arm to pull down the neck of his shirt. He yanked it over his shoulder, revealing the gaping indent of a walker bite in the crook of his neck. "It happened at the food bank," he said, looking up at Sasha. Her face dropped, the realization hitting her like a ton of bricks. Any hope of getting Bob healed and back on his feet eventually completely vanished from our minds.

Her lip quivered, "It's okay," she breathed out.

"There's a sofa in my office," Gabriel said, "I know it's not much, but..."

"Thank you," Sasha looked back at him.

Tyreese helped move him to Gabriel's office. We all stood up, creating a pathway for him to get by. Sasha followed hastily, disappearing into the back room. As soon as they were gone, Rick wasted no time questioning Gabriel.

"Do you know the place he was talking about?" he asked quietly.

Gabriel nodded his head, "It's an elementary school. It's close."

"How close?"

"It's just a ten-minute walk through the woods from here, due south of the graveyard."

Tyreese emerged from Gabriel's office, leaving Sasha to be alone with him.

"Does he have a fever?" I asked

"He's just warm," Tyreese answered.

"Jim lasted almost two days before we left him," Glenn said.

"Time for a reality check." Abraham boomed from behind us. We brought our attention towards him, he stood tall in the middle of the aisle, his machine gun held tight in his hands with his belongings thrown over his shoulder. "We all need to leave for DC right now." Rosita stood up, throwing her gun over her shoulder and walking over to back Abraham up.

"Our people are going to be back," Rick fought, "We're not going anywhere without them."

"I respect that, but there's a clear threat here to Eugene, I need to extract his ass before things get any uglier. So if y'all won't come, then good luck to you. We'll go our separate ways." Abraham said his peace and turned to leave.

"You leaving on foot?" Rick called out.

Abraham and Rosita turned, her brows furrowed as to why he would even question that. "We fixed that damn bus ourselves." Abraham grew annoyed.

Rick walked up to him, his teeth gritted together, "There are a lot more of us."

"You wanna keep it that way?" Abraham threatened. "You should come."

"Carol saved your life. We saved your life."

"Well, I am trying to save yours! Save everyone's!" Abraham shouted.

"I'm not leaving without our people!"

"Your people took off!"

"They are coming back!"

"To what, picked-over bones?!" Abraham shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice harsh and tempered. He grabbed Eugene who sat in one of the pews, gripping onto his shirt and dragging his ass up. "Come on!" He yanked him, causing everyone to step in.

You could see Eugene's body go into fight or flight mode, his expression scared as he turtled his whole body in the grasp of Abraham. The stress of tonight's events pushed him to the brink of insanity. Everyone was screaming at each other, fighting about what the next move was, our emotions high.

"I'm not a scientist," Eugene confessed. It was almost impossible to hear him over all the shouting, but the shock of his statement was enough for everyone to stop dead in their tracks. "I'm-- I'm not a scientist!" he yelled again, his body shrinking to nothing waiting for our reactions.