Captive | The Walking Dead |

38

I am not going to die because of this stupid sickness Isabella cursed herself.

She pushed herself through the doors separating the sick from the exposed, and all heads swiveled in her direction.

"Isabella?" Glenn weakly said as she began to cough up a storm.

"I'm so sorry Isabella," Carol whispered, her eyes wide with tears filling them.

"It's not your fault," she managed to get out before feeling a surge of intense pain in her abdomen causing her to nearly collapse.

Glenn was quick in guiding her to a cell with Bear trailing and Isabella wanted to cry; she'd come so far in this shitstorm and then to be taken out by a sickness?

"You probably could've found some other way to catch Rick's attention you know," he softly joked as she sat on a bed, earning a smile from her.

"I can believe I'm going to die because of this, it's such a lame way to go out."

"If you die then I die, so hold out okay?"

"Only if you die first, no way am I gonna get outlived by you."

"Funny."

Meanwhile, Carol had gone off to tell Rick of the situation, shouting his name repeatedly as he ran to meet her halfway.

"It's Isabella," was all she said and Rick wanted to sprint off to see her, but he couldn't.

"Oh," was all he said. "She'll be okay, she's strong."

Carol's face dropped in disappointment, as she had grown tired of the charade of Rick constantly denying his feelings.

"Rick, she's dying, she cares about you, and you care for her. Why won't you let her in?"

For which, he truly had no answer to. Why didn't he let her in? He could've told her weeks ago, he could've told her the day they had gotten rid of the Governor. Even if it were temporary, he could've gotten over his pride and been honest with the girl.

But he didn't, he wanted to say something to her so many times over the month, but he so desperately held onto ghosts and couldn't get past them. The ghost of Lori, the ghost of his past life and he couldn't help but always wonder if he even deserved her.

Lately, with the way he'd acted to her a month ago proved to himself that he didn't deserve her, so he figured it'd be easier to move on if there was never anything there.

He tried to deny his feelings, tried to deny anything was there; but it was all a lie, for there was everything there.

<>

Isabella's and Glenn's illnesses hadn't progressed, and while the two were still very weak, they had some energy and tried to make the best of it.

They traded stories in between, speaking of their lives before or just how they've been holding up recently. Their weak laughs filled the cell as they tried to take their minds off their impending dooms.

Sasha was quick in joining them as she too fell ill, but she got worse every minute and Hershel tended to her far from the two in hopes of alleviating the spread.

The two had begun to play cards, and Isabella smiled triumphantly as she quickly beat him in a round of poker.

She grinned as she reached in her bag and pulled out the polaroid, snapping a picture of Glenn's defeated face.

She couldn't help but burst into laughter as she showed him the photo who joined in.

"If we make it out alive, I'm not letting this down," she smiled.

The two decided to then try and make the best of their shit situations by taking photos of one another.

After Glenn had taken one of Isabella, she signed it as if she were a celebrity and Glenn was an adoring fan of hers.

"I'll forever treasure this."

"You better Rhee."

Their laughter didn't last long however as the onslaught of the illness had quickly grown worse making their situations much more dire.

<>

"They're getting worse Rick," Herschel informed Rick as he met up with him outside the courtyard. "They won't last long without the medicine."

"Daryl should be back soon," he said, mostly as a comfort to himself. "How... how is she?"

"Barely holding. Poor girl keeps slipping in and out of consciousness."

Rick remained silent.

"Can I see her?"

"It's too risky, I'm sorry Rick. I hope you can reflect on your feelings towards her."

Back inside, Glenn and Isabella remained in the same cell despite protests from Hershel to comfort one another.

It was ironic, the two ex prisoners from the others group were now such close friends and would do anything for the other.

Isabella woke once more to her head resting against Glenn's shoulder.

Herschel soon came in and held out some elder berry tea to them, and despite protests from both to save it for others, they eventually caved and drank.

"We won't last the night will we?" Isabella whispered once Hershel had left.

"Probably not," Glenn sighed and Isabella pushed herself towards her bag on the floor.

Bear whined as she quickly scratched his head and began digging through it.

"Found it," she smiled and pulled out stacks of paper with some pens. "I always keep something to write with in my bags, to journal but I figured now would be good to you know..."

"I've never written a letter before," Glenn hesitated as he took a paper from Isabella.

"Just write what's in your heart. As long as you do that, you'll be golden."

The two then fell silent as they began writing letters for their loved ones.

Glenn wrote to Maggie.

Isabella wrote three. One for Rick, one for Carl and one for Judith.

In each she told them how much she loved them, how much she appreciated being accepted in the group and regretted she'd never see them live out their lives. She wrote Judith for advice as she wouldn't be there to protect the child.

She wrote to Carl how much she loved him, how he reminded her of Guillermo and that she'd seen him as her own son. And that she was sorry she wouldn't be there for him growing up.

Her letter to Rick was a mess to say the least. She began by telling him once more her true feelings, and then wrote her frustrations and anger towards him and despite the pain he brought on her, that she hoped he'd continue to lead with his heart. She finished the letter by saying she'd always love him, and was fully crying by now.

She folded each letter up and gave them to Hershel after Glenn did the same.

"I'm not giving them these until something happens. That's not an excuse to die though, because I know both of y'all will make it out alive."

Isabella once more felt a wave of exhaustion, and she tried to not fall asleep in fear of not waking up, but her body caved in and once more, she fell in a painful rest.