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lovlyrp · 2 months

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excerpt [2] from my archived TWD rp: "the ones who live" (2021-23)

𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑦 : A chapter after the bridge explosion (S9) where an injured Faith (Rick's adopted daughter) & Rick Grimes are trying to survive the damage. They found a pharmacist, Jared, who tags along only because she needs him to look after her father in really rough shape.

ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢꜱ : For 18+ only. Chapter contains violence, gore, all TWD regulars. [ word count: 7294 ]

➯ note: this was originally an rp where another author wrote Rick's perspective. All credits for those parts go to them and are marked with this symbol "⿻".*

Home. Family. It all seemed so far. Faith didn’t see it the way Rick did. She thought they were gone, that everything was gone. Everything they loved was gone. But he just thought they were lost- that they were going to go home. She tries to remind herself that they’re not dead. That they’re still here and they have somewhere to go. They’re not lost. Not completely.

Jared Epson, the pharmacist they picked up, moves his body as he adjusts his position, making Faith sit up immediately and look at him. He freezes as he hears her movements, pretending to be asleep. “Good.” She says, now standing up and walking over to her designated rock pillow, sitting down on it. “You’re awake.” Jared lifts his head and looks at her, noticing her eyes were teary. She wipes her face with her arm and sighs as she looks around, seemingly safe from anything. The walkers’ bodies were still scattered a bit further away, but that didn’t matter. They were dead. Jared sits up and looks at the terribly injured man strung up on the wood planks. The girl’s father. “Now you can go check on him,” she says, motioning her open knife to Rick, not giving the man a choice but to check on him. She needs to know he's okay.

⿻His ice blue eyes meet Jared's through his glasses, giving him an intimidating and an assertive stare, even though he was weak. He may be frail and unable to walk on his own for now, but he sure as hell had to make it clear that Jared wasn’t leading them and that he wasn’t in charge. Then again, Faith seemed to have already done that. She was the leader. Not Jared. Not Rick. Her. ⿻

Jared stands up and stretches, walking over to the plank sled and crouching down beside the man. He feels his head with his hand, feeling Faith’s eyes burning through his skin as he does a wellness check on her father. “He’s a little hot. Probably a light fever.” He says, sitting on his folded legs as he looks at the closed wound. “It doesn’t look infected.” He says, giving the injured man a small smile as he bears the good news. Faith nods as she listens to the updates, admiring her knife.

“What can we do about the fever?” She asks, looking at the man now. Jared shrugs.

“He needs water. We all do,” he says, looking at the empty water bottle beside him. They used it all last night. She didn’t even think about how dehydrated she was. Her mind had other priorities than her own health.

She looks out at the woods before sighing. “You said you were ‘passing though,’” she says, looking at Jared now. “From where? Is there something there we can use?” She asks, eyeing the tubby man. He scratches his chin and sighs as he thinks about her question.

“I’ve been staying in a van. No gas or anything. Just been sleeping in it.” He says, figuring it had no real use. She nods and looks down at her ankle splint. She thinks for a long time before looking at him again.

“We need to get moving.” She says, standing up and going to her dad, folding her knife away and picking up the belt loop. Jared shakes his head in silent disagreement, picking up his bag and lantern before they go. She shouldn’t put more pressure on her ankle. And where were they even going, anyway?

“Where to?” He asks, his voice a lot less nervous than yesterday. She pulls her dad along the planks, yanking the belt loop. She still wasn’t letting Jared help. She doesn’t answer his question. How could she? She didn’t even know where they were now. She was just walking aimlessly, hoping to find something or somewhere they can stay to heal and go home, like Rick said. ⿻He just laid there with his eyes closed, listening to everything that was going on around them. The sound of the planks dragging against the ground. The gentle wind brushing through the trees. He listened to any signs of other people or walkers. He couldn’t be too careful, even though his eyes weren’t even open. He felt his breath slowing down, but he wasn’t going to let himself go unconscious again. He couldn’t. But he could say goodbye to Carl if he did. No. He couldn’t. He can’t stop fighting.⿻ After a while of walking, she finally answers.

“I don’t know.”

Faith keeps tugging for what felt like hours. She was getting tired already on her ankle and she's thirsty. Her stomach felt so empty that it cramped to move. Jared was sweating completely through his shirt again, struggling to keep his groaning to himself. Be must not be used to walking long distances. Neither was Faith. Not this long anyway. She keeps dragging the planks by the belt loop until she sees something through the trees. It looked like some sort of water tower. Water towers usually mean there’s a town nearby. She keeps pulling with more hope this time, thinking they could find some food or something to keep them stable. Jared noticed it too, reading the town name printed on the water tower out loud, "Blue Ridge.” He starts to move with more energy too, as this was good news.

Faith sighs and looks down at her dad, noticing he was covering his face from the sun. She frowns with worry and guilt, realizing she should’ve taken better care of him so he was comfortable. She leans down and checks his forehead with the back of her hand before running her hand through his short hair. “Sorry,” she says, apologizing for him being here like this.

She looks at Jared and then at the buildings around. She has to check each one. There has to be something they could use. She drags the planks across the street to one side of the strip of buildings, letting go of the belt as she pulls him into the shade. She looks through the dirty window of the building they’re in front of, not able to see anything through the grime. She pulls her knife and looks at Jared. “You stay here with him.” She says, hoping he wouldn’t do anything stupid to make her kill him. She really didn’t want to have to lose a doctor who could help her dad.

“What am I supposed to protect myself with?” He asks, trying to get his hands on a weapon just in case. She scoffs and shakes her head, waving her knife nonchalantly.

“Your head.” She says before leaving, limping along to go into the first brick building.

With her knife in hand, she opens the door. It's a little stiff, but it opens. A walker growls somewhere inside, though it sounds stuck or at least it isn’t coming for her yet. She pushes past the door as it seemed like chairs were pushed up against it, creating a barricade. Pushing through, she scans the room with her eyes. It's dusty, enough to make her cough.

It felt like hours passed in silence since Faith entered the building. Jared looks at the man on the planks who hasn't removed his eyes from the door since she went inside of it. He sighs and fiddles with his stubby fingers. Inside the dark building, Faith carefully treads across the wooden floor, keeping her knife up in a defensive stance. She listens to the walker’s distant groaning, trying to locate it based on where she was. This building seemed to be some sort of sandwich shop. There was a dusty menu above the countertop, one she couldn’t read very well from all the grime. She steps around the counter, now looking through the shelves. There was nothing but moldy display clubhouses and sandwich wraps in here. Faith holds her breath to avoid breathing in the moldy air. She stands in front of two silver double doors that looked like they just pushed open from either side. She peers through the circular windows on the doors, seeing a kitchen. The light was flickering inside, making it hard to see anything without agitating her already throbbing head. She braces herself by taking a deep breath, now slowly pushing through the double doors and peering inside. Rats scurry across the floor underneath the kitchen appliances as she walks in quietly.

Faith walks across the white tiled floors to the boxes along the walls. She peers inside of them, keeping her eyes open for any danger. She uses her knife to cut open the boxes, the blade slicing through the cardboard with a loud, rigid ripping noise. She looks around to make sure it didn’t attract any unwanted company, pausing in silence before reaching her hands into the boxes with her knife in hand, feeling around the bags of what looked like frozen chicken breast now all wet and leaking. She gags and jerks her head away from the box, now swatting her hands through the air to get the wet slimy liquid off her fingers. She wipes it on her pants, moving ahead. This place would definitely not cut it under any supervisor or health inspector.

She moves through the kitchen until she turns a corner, now popping her head around it as she hears the walker’s groaning become louder. It only got more aggressive once its dead eyes saw her lively brown ones. She holds her breath to keep quiet and fearless, now walking to the silver countertops and looking through all the clutter on top of them. The walker was trapped in some sort of wiring and hose by the dishwashing area. She ignores it, considering it to be not a threat while it’s stuck like that, moving around pots and pans as quietly as she can despite their clinking and banging. She keeps glancing up at the walker as it reaches out for her with its disgusting fingernails. In any other case, she would just terminate it now, but she didn’t want to exert any more energy than she had to. She needs it to travel.

She walks next to the walker, making sure to stay a good distance away from it. She moves things around on the counter with her hands, her attention averting to the walker as she hears it stretch some of the wires as it reaches out for her with even more hunger. She looks back down through an emergency plan map, noticing that this place had some sort of basement. There has to be storage down there. Maybe a freezer. Food. That's when she felt the walker’s groan become even more loud as it breaks free from the wiring, stumbling onto her shoulder, it’s hands grabbing her hair.

She yells out in surprise, dropping her knife, and moves her body away from it only to bump into the steel kitchen counter. She winces in pain from how hard she hit her side into it, but that didn’t matter now as the walker was pulling her hair towards its mouth. She looks back at the knife as it skids across the slippery tile floor under another counter across the room. Her eyes meet the walkers as it yanks on her hair, making her groan in sharp pain. Its foot was still connected to the knots of wires, keeping it restrained at some level. She keeps pulling her head away as it yanks on her hair, listening to the chopping down of its rotten teeth on her curls. She struggles, now nervous that she's going to be bit- that she was already bit somehow because of her stupidity to kill it when she initially saw it.

Her hands push against the walker’s forehead and neck, pushing it back with her life. In the same moment, pots and pans knock over the counter onto the floor, stirring a loud clanging and banging noise, throwing her off her game. The rats squeal and run away, scurrying out of the building into the street. Her fingers start to slip through the walker’s flesh, the rotten skin and muscle too loose to hold back with such strength. She yells loudly and shoves the walker down onto the ground as hard as she can, it’s greedy hands pulling her hair down with her body.

“Shit-!” She cries out, falling on the walker’s arm. She looks to her right, seeing a pan handle sticking out. She grabs it and swings the pan onto the walkers head, the sound making a metallic ringing sound along with a wet crunch. Pulls her hair from the walker, watching in pain as it seems to pull some of it from her scalp. She screams in agony and desperation as she’s above the walker now, swinging the pan over and over onto its head. She hammers the walker’s face in until its hands dropped limp and its growling stopped, leaving her only with her heavy breath. She drops the pan to the ground with a clang and reaches her hand to her hair, feeling the tiny bald spot from where the walker pulled her hair. Luckily, it wasn’t anywhere near her stitches to pull them out. “Fuckin' bastard...” she breathes to herself, now walking across the kitchen and retrieving her knife from under the dirty counter.

⿻ Rick’s ocean blue eyes were so focused on the building that his daughter had gone to that he practically forgot to blink. He waited and waited and waited, which felt like forever. His mind went to the worst things that could be happening inside that building. What if she was attacked? His eyes began burning, which eventually made him blink slowly. Then, suddenly, a bunch of rats ran out from that very same building. That only made him more worried. Worried sick, really. Something was going on, something that was even scaring the rats. He had to go see what was going on. He moved his arms so that his hands were against the ground next to the planks and his elbows were bent, after which he tried to push himself up. But he couldn’t. He groaned in pain as his muscles were refusing to flex. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t sit up. He couldn’t help her. ⿻

“Hey- you can’t,” Jared says. ⿻ Rick panted as he eventually gave up, but then turned his head to look at him.

"Go… Go in there,” he ordered him. His voice was weak, but assertive enough to make it clear that he was giving the man an order, one that he shouldn’t refuse. Me? Go in there?? No way, no way in hell. If he couldn’t go see what was going on himself, Jared had to. Someone had to. What if Faith was in trouble and needed help? Jared wasn’t a fighter, but he had to be able to help somehow. He wasn’t going to lose his daughter. He would much rather lose the pharmacist. Jared gulps as he watches the rats run out of the building, now more scared of what was going on inside. He stays still, not moving a muscle. That was until he heard the man aggressively growl at him from the planks, his eyes only more chilling to look at. "Go. Now.” He practically is growling at him through the pain. ⿻

Jared freezes and then gets up, nervously walking to the door, pushing it open gently and peering through as he breaks a nervous sweat. He looks around the dark abandoned sandwich shop, looking around the area until the flickering lights coming from the kitchen doors catch his fearful attention. He breathes shakily as he approaches it now, picking up a broken chair leg off the ground and holding it close to him, ready to swing as if it would do something. He pushes through the door to see a shadow growing larger as the figure walks around the kitchen. He walks towards it with fear trapped in his throat, making him want to cough and desperately clear it. He yelps in fear and holds the chair leg out as a figure walks around the corner. Faith stares at him with surprise at first, but it quickly turned to irritation as she looks at how Jared was standing there with the chair leg pointed at her with both shaky hands with his eyes squeezed shut. How did he even make it this far.

She shakes her head and scoffs before putting her hand on the piece of wood, lowering it down from her face. “I’m not even going to ask...” she grumbles, sighing as she picks up her knife and blows the dust off of it. She turns to where she saw the basement was located on the emergency map, now looking at the door covered in a duvet of dirt. She uses her hand to wipe away the dirt to read the printed words on the door. 'For employee use only.’ She rolls her eyes a little and turns the handle, opening the old creaking door wide. Jared finally opens his eyes as he hears Faith’s voice and realizes there was no danger. He looks at the lock of hair on the floor to his left and the walker’s smashed in head. He wanted to gag.

“D-Did you do that??” He asks, pointing a shaky finger at the walker. Seeing as to she ignores him, he just follows close behind her for safety, peering around her as she opens the basement door. A basement. A dark, wet basement. This is what happened in horrible scary movies.

Faith squints her eyes as she looks down the wooden stairwell, unable to see anything as it's pitch black. She flicks the light switch up and down which, as expected, doesn’t do a thing. She adjusts her grip on her knife before taking slow steps down the stairs. Oh my god, she’s actually going down there, Jared thinks. “I’m- I’m gonna stay here and uh...” he immediately scurries away to watch the kitchen door just in case, his eyes on the smashed in walker even though it was dead. Faith looks around as she walks down the stairs, now holding her hand out behind her at Jared, who once she turned, was not there. She scoffs in annoyance and realizes that she’s just going to have to look around down here in the dark. She could’ve used his lighter or flashlight. But of course, he punked out.

As she walks into the basement, she realizes that the ceiling was leaking, water dripping onto the very shallow water below her cowboy boots. She steps down onto the concrete floor from the last wooden step, her boot splashing quietly into the shallow water. Great. It’s like she couldn’t escape water. The incident: The bridge crumbling beneath their feet and their bodies being thrusted through the rushing current with bits and pieces of the dead... It haunts her. Faith stands still and listens for any growling or movement, not hearing anything but the dripping of droplets from the ceiling to the floor.

She then ventures through the dark wet basement of the sandwich shop. She had no light but the flickering one from the stairway of the open door. She steps through the water, trying to make as little noise as possible. She sees shelves and some sort of big steel door. Must’ve been the freezer. She walks closer to it, now looking through the darkness and feeling around the door with her hand. She could feel that the handle and pulls it, but nothing happened. Again. Locked. She feels around the handle until her fingertip presses along some sort of outline; a keyhole. She looks around the room, trying to search the shelves for anything she could use or even the key if she was so lucky. Her hands feel around the damp wooden shelves, feeling boxes upon boxes. Her hand reaches inside and pulls out a bunch of rotten lettuce. She scrunches her face and puts it back in the box to keep looking. She trips over something in the water, catching herself with her hands and knees as they get wet from the shallow water. She looks around the pitch black area until she turns around, feeling something hard that she tripped on. She picks it up, realizing it was a glass bottle. She looks at it for a while through the darkness until she sees something tiny inside, shaking it to hear it clink against the glass. She brings it all the way to her face to inspect it, now seeing the faint outline of a key.

She turns the bottle over and shakes it, but the bottle hole was smaller than the key itself. How did you get in there..? She decides to get that key out either way, now smashing it on the ground. She reaches into the water, her fingers blindly searching for or the key. She hisses and yanks her hand up out of the water as she cuts her hand on some glass. She holds it with her other hand, feeling the warm liquid leak out of it. Not smart. Dad would’ve warned me not to do that... and the walker earlier. If only he were here. It was all up to her now.

Faith finds the keys with her other hand, picking it up and putting it into the keyhole. She turns it, relieved to see it click open. She pulls the handle back, pulling hard against the big heavy door. A breeze of cold air chills her and her soaking cowboy boots as she opens it. Finally, there was some light in here coming from the fridge. She looks at the ground, noticing a corpse inside of it, its insides missing. It was dead dead. She steps in the fridge, keeping one boot out the door just in case it shuts, not wanting to freeze to death trapped in here. She wonders if that’s what happened to this person. Before they were a walker. She looks at the shelves, seeing a big box full of frozen goods like peas, potatoes, chicken, and even a giant container of water. Frozen, of course. Breathing out in satisfaction, she carries it out the door in her arms.

She rolls the water jug across the wet floor with her foot, the water splashing in its path while she carries the boxes in her arms. She walks up the stairs with the boxes, setting it down and going back down for the frozen water jug. It was very heavy, but at least it's water. She stops every four steps and sets it down before picking it up again; her back straining and her hand stinging. Finally, she makes it up the stairs to Jared who was inspecting the box she brought up. “Thanks for the help.” She pants, stretching her back in pain.

He frowns and carries the box outside, leaving the water for her. She sighs and rolls it out of the room through the double doors and out onto the sidewalk. She looks around the corner to see a walker’s legs. She practically stops breathing as she rushes around the corner, shoving Jared out of the way to see its head smashed in and her dad bloody on the planks. She comes to his side and shakes him a little, afraid for the worst that he was bitten or finally died killing this thing on his own while he was alone out here. She finally starts breathing again as she sees he’s alive. He wasn't going to be for long though if they stayed out here in the open. The dead found their way into the town, and she had to get him into cover.

After setting up camp in the run down daycare, Faith managed to grab what must've been the children's naptime cushions and some sheets to use as blankets. ⿻ Rick was relieved that she came to lay next to him. He moved his arm around her, ignoring the discomfort it brought and focusing on the fact that he was holding his daughter close in a way. His hand rubbing her back weakly, he closed his eyes, listening to the walkers’ faint growling and his daughter’s breathing that was slowing down. It made him feel relieved that she was getting some rest too. He stayed awake himself, even though he was exhausted too from what his body had gone through, making sure that the walkers didn’t manage to come inside the building. It seemed like the barricades and the sheets over the windows did the job, because eventually their growling became more faint as they either gave up or found another prey. ⿻

Jared lays down on the pillow, sighing in relief as he removes his glasses and listens to the walkers eventually mozy away. He turns his head to look at Faith who was cuddling her father. It warmed his heart, but still, he was curious. He says after a while of silence, after Faith was finally asleep- as if he was too scared to say it if she was awake, “She cares about you.”

⿻ "I know,” Rick told the man in a low voice, making sure not to wake up his daughter or attract any more walkers. He didn’t take his eyes off of Jared now that he knew he was still awake too. He studied him from afar, thinking of which of the many questions he wanted to ask him. His mind went to the three questions he always asked people. Maybe he already knew the answers to those questions, but he still had to ask. Looks could be deceiving. "How many… walkers have you k-killed?” He barely even blinked as he studied Jared’s reactions, trying to see any signs of him lying or getting scared of the questions. ⿻

Jared watches the weak man glare at him. His eyes were sharp and intimidating, but still, he tried to be polite. That’s all anyone could do nowadays. To keep some part of humanity alive. He watches Faith sleep next to her father as he replies to his comment, making sure she was in good shape while also thinking about their story. What happened to them and all. He holds his breath for a moment as he was a bit embarrassed to be honest with this man, but he knew he had to be. They had to trust each other.

“One.” He says quietly, clearly nervous at the thought.

He wouldn’t hurt a fly before all of this. And now he had to kill things to survive. He avoided it all costs; that’s why he ran. That’s why he always ran. He then realizes that this man was asking him more questions. They sounded... formal somehow.

⿻ "H-How many people… have you killed?” That was the question Rick really needed him to answer. He needed to know if he was a threat to them. "Why?” ⿻

How many people? Have I killed? How many? As if he would even kill one person. To think that people had a body count was frightening to him. He wonders how many people they’ve killed. Would he be added to it? “Z-Zero! I can’t even imagine...” he says, looking at the floor as he scares himself by thinking about what it’d be like to take another human life. He processes his last question, but it didn’t take long at all. “I want to keep my humanity for as long as I can...” he says, looking at his black leather slip on shoes.

⿻ Rick listened to Jared’s answers without a muscle flinching on his face. The answers were exactly what he had expected to hear. He hadn’t expected him to have killed many walkers at all, since he had ran away from the clearing yesterday. He also hadn’t expected him to have killed people. He wasn’t surprised at all. Now he was just curious how he had survived for so long. He assumed that he had been with those friends he had mentioned, but he still had many questions and he was sure as hell going to ask them. If he were to ever trust Jared, he had to know, and if Jared knew anything about survival, he was going to understand. Rick didn’t stay quiet for very long.

"Those friends of yours… You been with 'em… all this time?” He stared at the man. The assertiveness wasn’t leaving his face, though his voice was slightly softer than when he asked those three questions. "You got… weapons or a… a place you stayed at?” He had to know as much as he could about Jared and the group he had been with. There was still a chance that they were going to come looking for him and they had to be prepared for that, which meant that they had to know what they were up against. ⿻

Jared looks at the man as he addresses him again, seeming to have a lot of good questions. He may be a coward, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew that he had to ask such questions. Trust was in little supply these days. He also realizes now that this man had a southern accent while the girl did not. His friends were really just a small group. Three people. Molly, Jordan, and Rebecca. He missed them. They were good friends before all of this. “Yeah... we uh... we were coworkers. Office job, nothin’ fancy.” He says, shrugging. “I ran my brother’s pharmacy on the side.” He didn’t mind telling all of his personal life. He enjoyed it actually. Especially rambling on. “We were actually on our lunch break when we heard about zombies in the streets. Been together since.” He says, referring to walkers as zombies.

He glances at Faith sleeping before bringing his eyes to the floor for his next question. “I took them to my pharmacy,” he says, probably explaining where he got so much medicine in his backpack. So much that it barely closed with the zipper. “We found weapons along the way but... we mostly just kept moving. Rebecca...” he says, now arching his thick black brows. “The one with lung cancer,” he says quickly so that the man could understand, “She couldn’t move very far without problems so we used the van. Crashed and... I was left in the van by myself...” He says, clearly not even thinking that maybe his friends had left him behind. Or maybe they just figured he was dead. Either way, they weren’t with him now.

⿻ Rick listened to every word that came out of Jared’s mouth. He paid attention to every detail, making sure to memorize all of it. Luckily for him, the man seemed to know how important it was for him to know these things, seeing that he kept telling more and more about his story. Jared seemed harmless. Rick wanted to trust him and a part of him already was, but he wasn’t going to let that get to him yet. He couldn’t afford to trust someone so easily, not when so much of this was up to Faith. If he had been able to walk and fight and all, things would have been different. He couldn’t do anything that could put Faith in danger.

"Have you ever come… across o-others?” he asked next. He had come across many other survivors himself, some of which had become his friends and allies, while others had become enemies. He had to know if Jared had seen others too. Maybe he had enemies of some sort that could come after him or want to hurt him if they crossed paths. He just hoped that if he had come across others that they weren’t anything like the Saviors were. Or the people of Terminus. Or all the bad people he had come across. There were a lot of bad things in this world, but there was good too. He hoped that Jared was one of the good things. ⿻

Jared shakes his head chuckles a little quietly. “Only a few dead folk,” he says, referring to walkers. Or zombies as he so proudly puts it. He rubs his eye tiredly before speaking up, now finding it fair that he could ask some questions now. Especially now that the short little psycho was asleep. He hadn’t dared ask her any questions about their story or lives when she was awake. She had a knife and rude threats on him at every breath.

“Where’s her mother?” He asks, assuming the man’s wife- her mother, was around or perhaps gone now as people usually ended up. He found himself wondering where they came from- not that he hasn’t thought of that, and how they got here. The way they talked about ’home,’ it suggested that they had somewhere stable and safe to go back to. A community perhaps.

⿻ As soon as Rick heard the man ask about Faith’s mother, he frowned slightly. His mind immediately went to Michonne, but then he thought about her real mother. From before. He didn’t know anything about her. They hadn’t really talked about it. He just knew what happened with her real dad. That he abandoned her from the start, and then again after he met him in Atlanta.

"She, uh… She’s waitin’ for us.” He said eventually, talking about Michonne. Her mom.

He wasn’t going to give details about where Michonne was. He wasn’t going to tell Jared about Alexandria. It was too early for that. He stayed quiet for a while, but then decided that it was only fair to let him in to their story a little bit. After all, Jared had told him about his story too. "We got separated from her… There was… an accident. We were escapin’ a herd. Somethin’ happened… and we got lost.” ⿻

There was no growling or groaning from outside with the morning. Maybe the rats stole their attention and chased them away. Hopefully far from here. As Faith folds back the cardboard flaps with her hands, she looks down into the box to see that the bottom of the cardboard was a bit damp. The food, it must’ve defrosted like the water. Her eyes light up in excitement as she picks up a bag of frozen peas and squishes it with her hand. They were soft. Some of the bag was still cold to the touch and frozen, but most of it was ready to be prepared to eat. All they needed was some fire to cook it. Faith looks at Jared, now awake, and then walks over to the barricaded door. She listens for any growling, peeking through the curtains of the windows to see nothing but the deserted street and strip of buildings. Not a walker in sight. “They’re gone.” She says, turning back to the duo with a hopeful smile on her face.

Faith peers back out through the curtains to look down the other way of the street. Nothing there either. She watches the town of Blue Ridge for something to happen, but it was still as if time only passed through here and nothing else. Trash blew down the streets and the sun baked the black, tar pavement of the road. She needs something to cook this food. Her mind immediately went to the sandwich shop she had been in before. She cleared it- there surely wasn’t anything in there that could be of danger to them. The entire kitchen made perfect sense to cook the food with.

⿻ "Faith…” Rick's face is settled in worry. What if she was attacked again? He didn’t want to let her go out, but they had to eat. She turns her head to her dad as he says her name so uneasily. She comes over to him and crouches down in front of him, giving him a reassuring smile to his words. She was especially hopeful today. Things were going their way in terms of survival. "I know you have to go out there, but… Be careful. I mean it.” He gave her a serious look and raised his eyebrows a bit as a way to ask if she understood just how careful he was expecting her to be. ⿻

“I know you do.” She says before leaning in and kissing his cheek sweetly. She touches his shoulder as a way to say goodbye as she stands back up and walks to the other side of the room to the barricaded door. Jared looks at her and gulps. She was going out there.

“I’ll stay here, watch him-" he says quickly. Faith starts moving the tables and chairs out of the way of the door.

“Yeah.” She says dismissively, already assuming that part. She needed to go make sure there wasn’t a threat outside or in the building she was about to bring her father into. She could never be too careful- like he wanted her to be. She had to clear the sandwich deli again.

She opens the door and pushes through it, the door hitting something solid. She peers down to see a walker. Dead. She immediately pulls her knife and looks around cautiously. The walkers that were in front of the door... Someone must’ve taken this one out. As she steps over the body through the small crack of the door, she sees another body. And another. The entire group of ten walkers... they were put down right here. She pushes the door closed with her boot. If someone was around, they couldn’t know about her dad or Jared inside. Why did they take them out? The walkers? They had to have known they were trying to get something or someone inside, so why didn’t the person who did this come after them?

⿻ Inside the building, Rick exhaled deeply and pressed his head against the wall behind him, closing his eyes. He was worried sick for her, but there was nothing he could have done. His mind kept going to the worst; that she was in danger again. What if someone else was in the building she had gone to? What if someone found her? What if there was another walker or another herd? He eventually opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling, avoiding Jared’s round face and his glasses. He didn’t want to talk. He just wanted his daughter back already. ⿻

Faith carefully walks down the sidewalk with her knife in hand. If this person had a gun, it was over. She didn’t have anything long range. She stays close to the wall to have some form of cover. There’s no way someone just decided to take out a small herd for no reason if they were distracted already. They had to be here still. Or close by. She walks into the sandwich shop, pushing the door open carefully with her knife pointed in front of her. Nothing looked different about this place from before. Just as dark and dusty. She walks with cautious footsteps into the kitchen, walking through the double swing doors and peering around the flickering lit room. She turns the corner to see the walker she killed still there, its head smashed in and being eaten by rats. She scrunches her nose, now noticing the lock of her brown coil of hair still on the floor beside it.

As she takes a step towards the basement door, she hears a faint noise. She freezes immediately and listens to the silence, eventually hearing the noise again. Water splashing. Someone is here. In the basement. They don’t know she is. She breathes quietly, her breath starting to get a bit heavier from the intensity of her anxiety. They don't know. She could get the jump on them. Wait for them to come up. Or... She looks down the pitch black abyss the wooden steps descended into. She could still hear the occasional splashing around. She slowly brings her hand to the handle... before closing it as quietly as she can. There was no light down there anymore besides from the freezer she had taken food from. As the door clicks into place... she turns the lock. She listens as the water stops splashing.

It felt like an eternity of silence since the water stopped. That’s when she heard a creak coming from behind the door. Whoever was down there... they had stepped onto the bottom step of the wooden staircase. The flickering lights in the kitchen only made her more nervous. Her brown eyes were wide and she practically tried to hold her breath against the rapid beating of her heart. The creaking continued, the noise of footsteps getting louder as they ascend up the steps. She watches the door and the door handle with anticipation. She watches as the door handle turns, but doesn’t open. It was locked. She hears the breathing of someone directly behind the door. She backs up, her palm bouncing her knife handle in her hand anxiously. The door handle continued to twist with no effect.

“Hey!” A voice shouts from behind the door. Her breathing practically stopped. There was a person in the basement- behind this door.

Silence.

She then hears the door start to bang, rattling against the doorframe and the handle turning over and over. She thought she had swallowed her tongue as she jumps back, her back knocking into the steel countertop behind her, knocking metal utensils to the ground.

“Hey!!” The voice shouts again, now certain that someone was there- that someone locked them in the basement. “HEY! LET ME OUT!!”

Faith breathes heavily, her heart beating out of her chest. She felt frozen. She watches as the door rattles and bangs, the loud noises making her afraid. It brought her back to when she had shot the gun by her ear, when the bridge exploded, when all she saw was red and the river water. Her wild eyes drop to the bottom of the door as she eyes the shadow coming from behind it. Then she watches in horror as blood starts to spill from out from under it. It crawls its way to her boots.

She moves out of the way immediately as the voices started to speak to her through the door. Murderer. You failed us. You gutted me like an animal. You killed me for you. You didn’t have to do it. You sliced that girl’s face until she was unrecognizable. You tried to kill my girl. You got that woman shot in the face. My insides spilled all over you and you didn’t even flinch! She squeezes her eyes shut and grabs a metal shelf from beside her, now shoving it against the door with all her might to keep the red away. To keep the voices trapped. To lock away Negan's men- Jackson’s voice forever. The voice behind the door- she could only hear it as Negan’s and Jackson’s now.

“LET ME OUT!! LET ME OUT RIGHT NOW!!! YOU SICK FUCK!!” She looks back down to the bottom of the door, the blood gone. It was never there. She was sweating. She turns on her heels as she listens to the person behind the door bang against it and turn the handle desperately. She runs away, runs at top speed until she pushes through the front door, her hands on her knees as she breathes hard. She just locked someone in a dark, wet basement. She just locked them down there without any food- she had scavenged it all. She locked them down there in the dark and she didn’t even hesitate.

Thanks for reading this very long chapter. Let me know if you'd like to see more from different seasons/episodes or if you want part 2 of this chapter!

#twd rp #twd au #the walking dead #twd roleplay #rp blog #just a LONG excerpt #faith grimes #rick grimes #towl #rick grimes daughter au #original character

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