Malevolent. The Walking Dead

[ 019 ] always coming home

019: always coming home

They had woken up in the middle of the night, when the wind was howling and the door to the barn was rattling against the strong gusts. The limp, broken pieces of damp wood were flying in the wind and Daryl was pushing up against it to keep it closed. Soon, Maggie joined, and they all woke up one by one, cold and tired but jolted awake to try and close the door. Joey had her back pressed up against it as Finn was beside her and Carl on the other. She fell asleep shortly after the wind died down and she grew tired again. When she woke up, she thought it had just been a nightmare. She frowned when she didn't see Carl across from her but, instead, Finn was snoring soundly in his sleep. He had dirt on his face and his hair was still slightly damp. Bill was beside her on the other side, and she rolled over to look at him, his hand discarded on his chest while the other beneath her head. Joey stared intently at his chest to make sure he was breathing—he was.

She lay there for a while. Joey assumed it was still early in the morning—the sun was low in the sky, and peeking through the cracks in the wood. Some of the rays casted onto the bodies sleeping on the floor. It was peaceful, the morning after a storm. Joey took note of that quickly. The birds were singing as if nothing was wrong and everyone lived on past the nightmarish mask of nighttime. Joey must have been sweating in her sleep—unless the dampness from the rainfall hadn't dried yet. She didn't think it was the latter.

Everyone else seemed to be asleep, except for a select few. Maggie and Sasha weren't in the barn—Joey assumed they went out to collect water—or perhaps they were mourning together. Both of them had lost siblings within the past few days. The feeling of the barn was heavy and dark. It didn't matter that the sun was out—everyone was still on edge. Even after their collective effort the previous night, Joey didn't really feel a shift. Nobody woke up at the same time.

Joey sat up against the wall of the barn, cleaning off her knife. It was nearly spotless but she kept wiping it off with her shirt. Her and Carl haven't spoken since last night, and she wasn't sure why. For some reason, she didn't want to talk to him. The idea of talking to him about such personal things made her uncomfortable and she wanted to punch him in the face. He didn't seem to initiate anything, either, but that may have been because of Finn and Bill's constant stare at him. Multiple times Joey had to punch Finn in the side or poke Bill in the arm to get them to stop looking at him. They never really listened.

Joey also felt oddly alienated near Bill. She found herself thinking about him before the apocalypse, when she didn't really know him other than the fact that he was her school security guard. It was odd that she thought of his ex-wife when thinking of her made-up mother, or the fact that he always came to mind when talking about her father. He wasn't her dad, and she wasn't his daughter. He isn't your dad, and you aren't his daughter.

It was a while before Sasha and Maggie came back, and nearly everyone was awake and staring aimlessly around the barn, or trying to scrape up something to eat or drink. Finn and Joey were sharing a water bottle and she would playfully aim her knife at him every time he would try to take more than a sip. He was too tired to laugh but Joey just thought he was bitter about her having another friend besides him.

"Everyone . . ." Maggie spoke from behind the barn door, as she tried to push it open. "This is Aaron," a man emerged from outside, in front of Sasha. Nearly everyone shot up with their guns and weapons in hand. Joey dropped her knife and pulled out her gun, which wasn't loaded, but he didn't know that. Daryl went outside to scope out the area behind them. "We met him outside. He's by himself. We took his weapons and we took his gear," he was already being patted down again, and his hands went up in surrender. Everyone still kept their weapons up, aimed at him, or the ground around him. Joey furrowed her brows and glared at him when he looked at her.